


Every Overlord Needs a Mad Scientist

by Shadsie



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Beast Island is its own warning, Drama, F/M, Ficlets, Horde Prime Is His Own Warning, Humor, Tragedy, entrapdak positivity month, entrapdak-tober, prompts, short fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:40:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 31
Words: 30,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26780785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadsie/pseuds/Shadsie
Summary: Entrapdak Positivity MonthShort fics from prompts for each day of October, 2020.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak
Comments: 148
Kudos: 184





	1. The Crushing Void

**Author's Note:**

> October 1 prompt - Space 
> 
> There were eternities between them.

**The Crushing Void  
**  
  
 _Infinitely small.  
_  
That was how she felt. She had always felt small – a Princess without a Runestone born and raised and ultimately raising herself in a tiny kingdom of little power (Dryl was a mere mountain-colony). On top of that, she was short. Entrapta had always liked tiny things – cute things, perhaps because they made her feel big in comparison. She looked out of Darla’s screens onto the star-speckled expanse. They did not wink and shimmer here like they had in the Etherian-sky in the few weeks that Etheria had them. There was no atmosphere outside the ship, nothing to distort their light and make them shimmer.   
  
Entrapta was the only one awake on the ship at present, except for the ship, herself. Darla was handling the navigation, allowing Entrapta to pace around the empty command-deck. No debris showed up on the sensors. Travel was smooth. Every second of space was so entirely empty.   
  
She’d been out in it herself earlier in the… _day_? There was no night and day here, simply the void. In any case, she’d been out earlier doing repairs in a space-suit that thankfully did not leak, enjoying the sensation of pure freefall. She had long imagined this, ever since Hordak shared his charts with her and spoke of what he remembered. Her mind hadn’t done it justice. She wished she was more inclined to poetry, as she just couldn’t _describe_ what she wanted to put in her records in any satisfactory way.   
  
Sleep eluded the scientist. It wasn’t, unfortunately, an insomnia born of excitement over living a dream. It should have been, but as it was, tiny against the black sky that loomed before her, she couldn’t help but wonder if _he_ was looking at the same quadrant she was, the very same sky.   
  
That was the other reason she was out here. She dared not tell the others, not yet. She wasn’t good with people, but she knew enough about her friends to know that they wouldn’t understand. After all, they didn’t seem to get her attachment to Emily, and Emily was someone they found charming. Entrapta had thanked Scorpia for taking care of her. None the worse for wear in her absence save a scratch given to her by Catra and a need for a sensor tune-up. Her leg was still sticky. The ‘bot, they insisted, however, was not a _person_ , not the same as a person… _it_ was a Horde-drone…   
  
Something told Entrapta that her organic friends weren’t going to be entirely accepting of Hordak if they’d found him. It’s not that she didn’t have an interest in rescuing Glimmer, but if they knew that she wanted to rescue the Lord of the Horde, their enemy, along with her, they probably wouldn’t have let her come, even as technical-support.   
  
As if Bow would have gone out there to do the hull-repairs… they’d be dead in a day without her, not that she’d say anything about that, either! _Don’t make anyone mad… Friendship takes everything you’ve got…  
_  
Entrapta sat back on her hair. Hmm…there was what looked like it might be a red giant in the distance… Hordak, yes. He was out there, and he was in need of her help. There was a knot in her stomach that wouldn’t go away. She’d gotten to the Fright Zone just as he was being beamed away. She saw him from a distance, but he, Catra and Glimmer were gone before she could get a shout-out. Everything that she’d wanted to say echoed in her mind; “ _Hordak! I’m here! I’m alive!”_   
  
_“…Don’t go…”  
_  
Not that he seemed to have a choice at the time, even if he had seen her.   
  
He’d always spoken of his place at Horde Prime’s side as where he belonged, where he was destined to be – until that day when they were considering postponing potential contact until the portal-design had been perfected, which could have meant tinkering forever. At first, she thought that she should be happy for him – the project having been a success, after all. She worried that maybe it was selfish to keep him from his home.   
  
That was before the invasion of Etheria went full-scale and she’d seen clones. She hadn’t been able to get close without Adora stepping in to ruin her observations or Perfuma whipping a vine around her and dragging her back for her own protection. She’d found it all frustrating and demeaning, but she wanted friends so she didn’t say anything. She knew that she’d find a way to get a close look at the clones someday. 

From what she was able to observe at a distance, they weren’t… well, they weren’t Hordak. They were strictly regimented, spoke only of Horde Prime, didn’t smile, didn’t growl, and didn’t do anything at all but move and attack in formation. They were a lot like coordinated drones, something mechanical and remote-controlled given organic-shape.   
  
She put two and two together. Hordak’s memories had been wrong. Perhaps they’d been scrambled when he’d crashed, or worn through with time away from his master. Maybe he’d crafted a story for himself as a way of finding meaning. People tended to do that. Entrapta concluded that upon “going home,” Hordak was in trouble. If he was like the others, rendered back to default-settings, he was not himself. She had to get him back and make him remember. 

Space may have been his home, but he was small against the void, too.   
  
Entrapta listened to the soft breathing and snores of her companions. She reached out to the screen, holding stars within the silhouette of her hand.   
  
“Hordak…” she said, eternities between them. “I’m coming.”   
  



	2. Class is in Session

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> October 2 - Science 
> 
> Old Man Yells at Moon

**Class is in Session**   
  
  
In regards to the scientific knowledge-base of this planet, there was not much that Entrapta didn’t know. She had multiple disciplines as a researcher, even though her main interests lay in robotics and physics. However, there was one field of science that, due to the nature of her world, she was wholly new to.   
  
Hordak paced before a large computer screen, his cape swishing as he walked. He held a long stylus. Entrapta sat upon a chair made from her hair while Emily rested beside her, topped by an attentive Imp.   
  
Hordak’s Astrophysics Class was held daily in his Sanctum, after the morning troop-address and before the daily work on the Portal. He would have held it more seldom, but Entrapta insisted upon learning. Hordak knew that she needed to be informed of as much as possible as quickly as possible due to the nature of the portal project. Surely, his brother would see Entrapta’s value as a scientist once he took over this backwater world and if one was going to work in one of the sciences division of the Galactic Horde, they needed at least a crash-course.   
  
It had nothing at all to do with how her eyes widened and sparkled or how beautifully she smiled when he spoke of quasars and pressure-differentials. Nope, not at all…   
  
It frightened him slightly how enthusiastic she was about black holes. She found them a source of wonder. They were, perhaps the one thing in space that most terrified him.   
  
Occasionally, class would de-evolve into arguments.   
  
“But the Speed of Light is a constant!” she argued one morning, pacing and waving her hands. “So you’re telling me that Galactic Horde ships can BREAK PHYSICS and that it has NOTHING to do with thaumaturgy?”   
  
“Well, one might say that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic to primitive peoples,” Hordak said gruffly, pointing to a diagram of his ship (long since scrapped to create the Fright Zone). “My ship’s engines were designed to fold space-time, allowing its prow to slice through it as a sharpened dagger through fabric.”   
  
“Fascinating! Show me the formulas!”   
  
“Of course, although, since we are exchanging science-lessons of late, perhaps you can teach the teacher. There is something confounding, utterly aggravating about this world that I’ve always wanted to know.”   
  
“Hmmm? Really?”   
  
“How does Etheria foster life without a sun?”   
  
Stars, suns and orbital-mechanics had been discussed last week.   
  
“What do you mean? We have a highly energized moon.”   
  
Hordak put a hand to his forehead. “As we have already learned, that is not how it works. It is not how any of it works.”   
  
“It works here.”   
  
“It is not supposed to.”   
  
At this, he opened a doorway, allowing daylight to stream in from outside. As if to make some kind of a point, he raised a fist and shook it at the day-moon.   
  
Entrapta spared a giggle. Imp snickered, mimicking her.   
  
Hordak turned. “What?”   
  
“You’re shaking your fist at the moon! You cannot yell at it to get out! It’s a moon!”   
  
“Yes, but I can remain angry. The damnable thing makes absolutely no sense.”   
  
Entrapta put a hair tail to her chin. “Well, there is a long-running theory that the First Ones imbued it with energy when they settled Etheria.”   
  
“Why did they not just settle a planet that was within liquid-water orbital-range of a yellow star?!” he asked indignantly. “Your day-moon might as well be a sun, but it orbits the planet and that is wrong! All wrong!”   
  
“Hordak, come inside. You promised to tell me all about red giants and white dwarfs!”   
  
“Yes, yes,” Hordak said with a swish of his cape, closing the door, blocking the accursed glow-moon from sight.   
  
  



	3. In Sickness and in Health

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> October 3 - Past 
> 
> A scene from Entrapta's past and a scene from Hordak's. Seperate character-studies this time.

**In Sickness and in Health**  
  
  
Alone.   
  
That was her state for two years. Given that children perceive years as infinities, the glow moon felt like it was going to blind her upon her exit from the castle and the baker’s hug felt even more strange. The little girl kicked off her plastic shoes and let the grass tickle the soles of her bare feet. She looked back at the steel-bearded android she’d brought with her for re-assurance.   
  
“Can you hold out your arm for me, sweetie?”   
  
“Uh-huh.” Little Estrella slowly nodded. This was the first day she was talking to the servant who baked her robot-delivered treats in-person and not from behind a screen.   
  
“I’m sorry if it hurts, but it will keep you from getting sick, okay?”   
  
“Okay. Hey, ow!”   
  
“There, all done.”   
  
“Mumsy and Daddums made this.”  
  
“That’s right.”  
  
“And people in Dryl won’t get sick anymore. And I don’t have to be locked in the tower anymore!”   
  
“That’s right.”  
  
“I left so many projects up there!”   
  
“You can go back to them,” Baker laughed.   
  
“Ooh, ooh, I should bring Spot out to play! He’s a quadruped-bot I made to carry things! He’ll love this!”   
  
“I bet he will.”   
  
“I’ve gotta show him to Daddums! He’ll be thrilled!”   
  
“Um… Es’tra?”   
  
She was already running around, gesticulating with her hands, letting her puffed pigtails trail out behind her. “Mumsy might be scared of him at first, but they’ll get along, I know it!”   
  
“Es’tra… there’s something I have to tell you.”  
  
Baker found herself being grabbed by a thick, barrette-laden tendril. “There’s no time! We gotta let him outta the tower now!”   
  
“Es’tra…” Baker sighed, trying to reign in the tiny genius. “Your parents…”   
  
The girl turned around, catching her gaze for a moment before looking at her bare toes. Baker bent down and put a hand on her shoulder. She flinched away. “Mumsy and Daddums haven’t video-communicated with me for 8 days, 5 hours and 23 minutes…”   
  
  
________________  
  
  
“I do not know why you thought you could hide from me, little brother.”   
  
The Brethren bowed in a semi-circle before the throne as a pair of Attendants dragged one of their own before their Emperor and threw him to the floor. The sinner crouched on his knees and bowed low, making himself as small as possible.   
  
“I SEE ALL, I KNOW ALL!” Horde Prime roared.   
  
“Horde Prime sees all! Horde Prime knows all!” the Brethren in the room chanted until the Emperor bade them to stop.   
  
He crouched low and placed a metal-tipped claw beneath the chin of the criminal that had been brought before him. He smiled a predator’s grin as he caressed the little brother’s cheek.   
  
“Perhaps it is admirable that you remained determined to serve in my light despite the pain you are in. Such dedication to the purity of suffering, hmm?”   
  
The clone looked at the floor, too ashamed to meet his master’s gaze.   
  
“Disrobe,” Prime ordered.   
  
The clone obeyed, taking off his hood before peeling off his uniform. He was shivering the entire time.

  
Horde Prime stood before him and addressed the Brethren, waving a hand to the transgressor. “Behold!” he shouted. “A defect! Gaze upon him with utmost shame!”   
  
“Oooh… Aaaah!” the brothers exclaimed as one, recoiling in various states of horror. A few hid their eyes. Horde Prime smiled.   
  
“Pretty clever… hiding those budding skin-patches beneath your clothes. How did you ever conceal the pain of your decaying arms from me, brother? Did you tune up your internal cybernetics yourself?”   
  
“I sought to do anything to remain useful in your sight, Lord Prime.”   
  
Prime fixed him with all of his eyes. “Without my permission. Without even my knowledge. I should have paid closer attention to you after I’d sent you to the lower decks. This is how you repay me? By hiding from my light?”   
  
“Lord Prime?”   
  
Horde Prime kicked the prone man in the chin. He crumpled to the floor. Prime began to yell and to kick the clone in the ribs and stomach. “A. Defect. Has. No. Right. To. Hide. From. My. Sight!”   
  
“For-give…me…Lord…Prime!”   
  
The Emperor lifted his faithful servant up by the neck and glared daggers at him before throwing him back to the cold floor. Prime kicked him again, and then stood back, watching the clone cough up a gout of blood. “Get up,” he ordered.   
  
The clone trembled in agony, reaching out for the floor, trying to get his bearings.   
  
“Get up right now under your own power or you will be sent immediately to Recycling.”   
  
The clone grunted and grit his teeth. Shaking, he managed to get his hands beneath his chest and to slowly rise to his knees and then to his feet. He looked at Horde Prime, blood dribbling down his chin.   
  
Horde Prime responded with a small smile. “Impressive,” he said. “You may yet prove yourself to be of some worth. “The beings on Krytis have been rather resistant to my Light and must be shown the error of their ways. You shall go to the front lines. You will not survive, but you shall use the last dwindling shreds of your life for my glory. Clean yourself up and report to the docks.”


	4. Club Galactic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month   
> Oct. 4 - Going Out 
> 
> Entrapta drags Hordak out to a nightclub for clones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by a cute animal video on the Internet, of all things.   
> There is a tiny reference to an early 90s science fiction show in here. Get the pride of being a geek if you can pick it out.

**Club Galactic  
**  
  
Hordak was trying to figure out the sequence of events that had brought him to this place. His ears were straight against his skull, an expression of displeasure. No amount of flattening could deafen the blaring music. The lights at the edges of his vision bothered him. A tendril of purple hair wrapped itself around one wrist.   
  
“Come on, let’s dance!”   
  
“And make a fool of myself?”   
  
“Just one dance, please?” Entrapta begged. “To tell the truth, I’m not much for it all either, but participation is vital to the social experiment!”   
  
“Very well.”   
  
“It’ll also be an excellent opportunity to see how your new armor holds up!”   
  
Hordak had been essentially forbidden from wearing battle-armor that enhanced his strength to particularly inhuman levels after the end of the war, but Entrapta had been crafting for him a series of form-fitting armors that served as mobility-aids. They went well with – and appeared to be to the untrained eye to be - ordinary clothing, if a bit on the designer-side. The power crystals were embedded into joints that deft feline-claws could not get into and so the large crystal etched with the word “LUVD” hung around the former warlord’s neck on a golden chain.   
  
Hordak’s slinky dress was long enough to almost brush the floor. Entrapta, for her part, was dressed in a smart little tuxedo with a tiny top-hat perched upon the top of one ponytail. They both looked the part for this club. The aesthetic of the place was something that Etherians had labeled “Gothic” and the garb people wore here was quite expressive.   
  
Most of the crowd was made up of spacebats.   
  
“One dance,” Hordak grumbled. “Then your promise to Kadroh will be fulfilled and we can leave.”   
  
Entrapta giggled. “A dance, some drinks and some tiny food!”   
  
“Alright, then.” Hordak looked around. He almost ran into a deer-man with a large rack of antlers that had been painted black. The deer was shuffling with a spacebat-partner. Now that he took the time to notice, Hordak saw that Entrapta was the only human here. Every other club-goer was one of his kind or a member of Etheria’s beast-folk.   
  
Entrapta started to dance, but seemed like she was unsure how. She looked out at others in the crowd and began to imitate them – awkwardly. Hordak followed suit, timing a shuffling of his elbows and his feet to the beats he heard in the music.   
  
“This place… is popular…” he stated. “It seems that Kadroh is doing well for himself.”   
  
The clone formerly known as “Wrong Hordak” had been trying many things in terms of finding his identity and things to do after the war. He was very much unlike Hordak in that he was a rather gregarious sort. As an extension of this and of the cooking hobby he’d discovered, he’d started a nightclub. He’d found an old industrial-building that was still standing in a town that had been bombed out during the war and had turned it into a party-hub for Horde-clones and Etherians alike. The club catered especially to the spacebats because others struggled to understand their preferences. For instance, this was one of the few establishments where they could get a soured-milk drink, discovered recently by accident and refined through culinary-experimentation. It had proven to be a bit of an intoxicant for them. It did nothing for Etherians. It was also a place where they could get some fairly strong whisky – something that Hordak often had for breakfast. His kind metabolized alcohol slightly differently than humans did. For him, it was like Entrapta and her coffee.   
  
His own single encounter with coffee was something he did not want to think about.   
  
“You’re moving great!” Entrapta encouraged. “How does it feel?”   
  
Hordak moved with the music and he actually was starting to enjoy himself. His joints felt fluid. For emphasis, he spun and dipped.   
  
“Ooh!” Entrapta squealed, clapping her hair-tails, “I’ve never seen you bend down so far!”   
  
She paused and took a pair of champagne-flutes off the tray of a passing server. She passed one to Hordak and they shuffled off into a corner to sip their drinks and watch the crowd.   
  
“Alright, more than one dance,” Hordak said, grinning. “Thanks to your armor, I found that quite invigorating.”   
  
“Great!”   
  
His ears flattened again at a discordant note played over the speaker system. “Although I do find the music to be a bit too loud for my liking.”   
  
“Music?” Entrapta asked, “What music?”   
  
Hordak whipped around, eyes wide. “What? Are you well, Entrapta?”   
  
“Perfectly. I just don’t hear any music! I was just trying to keep up with the others with the dancing, but… it is not customary for people to dance without music. How does Kadroh get people to do it? Fascinating…”   
  
“Of course there is music,” Hordak intoned. “You…you don’t hear it?”   
  
“Nope!”   
  
Hordak listened carefully. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the trills and screeches and upon what he could catch of Galactic Hordish lyrics. It dawned on him. Of course!   
  
“You shall have to work on inventing a hearing-aid-device for yourself to come to this club,” he told her with a smile. “It would seem that the music here is strictly in my language. The frequencies are beyond your range. That could explain why the only other Etherians here are certain kinds of beast-folk. Every species has its own limits in perception.”   
  
Entrapta quivered in joy, her eyes sparkling in the spinning club-lights. “Amazing!”   
  
She grabbed Hordak by the waist with her hair again and dragged him back to the dance floor. “We’ll have to stay here all night! So much data to collect! So much study to be done! I’m the ultimate unbiased outside-observer! Eeeee!”   
  
More dances were shared, more observations done and more drinks were downed. After that, another limit to Entrapta was discovered, that, unfortunately, of her ability to metabolize alcohol.   
  
Hordak carried her to their skiff. The next morning was spent with the two of them in one of the bathrooms of Dryl, Hordak holding back her beautiful purple hair as she unloaded the remains of everything she’d eaten the night before into a commode. He rubbed her back and whispered sweet nothings to her, having not changed out of his armor, experiencing a rare role-reversal in who took care of whom.   
  
They didn’t have any plans to go to Club Galactic again. 


	5. Strong Enough for Weakness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 5 - Disability 
> 
> Entrapta didn't think that Hordak should have agreed to come to the treaty-discussion today. He was obviously having one of his "bad days."

**Strong Enough for Weakness**

  
  
“The citizens of Talon Mountain have only known Horde-rule for decades! I have met with Queen Hunga! They wish to incorporate into Dryl, because they are accustomed to me!”   
  
Hordak slammed his palm on the table of Bright Moon’s war room, standing up.   
  
“Well, we wish to incorporate them into Bright Moon’s territories!” Glimmer retorted, also standing up, “It’s about time that they’re free of the Horde! It doesn’t exist anymore! There is no more Fright Zone!”   
  
Mermista sighed and inspected her fingernails. “As if we’d let you continue with political power, anyway. You’re only alive because you’re Entrapta’s pet.”   
  
“That is not fair!” Catra yelled, tail-a-bristle.   
  
“And you’re only here because you’re Adora’s pet.”   
  
“You wanna go, fish-stick? I’ll take you right here!”   
  
“Order, please?” Bow spoke up.   
  
After many months and after the outcome of certain trails, the Princesses and certain former members of the Horde were discussing treaties and the statuses of certain territories. Discussion was getting heated and from her position seated beside Hordak, Entrapta could see a slight tremor in his frame. Stress was not good for his condition. He had insisted upon wearing only his light-armor today so as to appear non-threatening to their hosts. It would be easier to get business done if he looked more like a regular man and less like a hulk.   
  
Only a few people knew that he wasn’t as strong as any standard Horde-clone – Entrapta, of course, Catra and Adora. Entrapta didn’t even think Scorpia knew of his defect. Glimmer had spent time with him on the Velvet Glove, but he was covered, drugged and partially-restored then, from what he had told her in regards to what parts of it he could remember. Her lab partner preferred to keep his secrets even now. She suspected that he was having one of his “bad days” this morning, but he insisted upon coming to the meeting.   
  
“You will keep your silence and let me speak!” Hordak demanded. At that very moment, he swayed, his head fell back in an empty gaze toward the ceiling and he dropped to the floor.   
  
Entrapta was quickly at his side. “Hordak!”   
  
“Whoa! What happened to him?” Mermista asked.   
  


“Is he okay?” Perfuma inquired.   
  
“Everyone stay back! Stay back!” Adora ordered, approaching his prone form.   
  
Entrapta was already prodding him with multiple hair-tendrils and, without thinking, disassembling his armor so that she could get at ports with her tools.   
  
Frosta peered over the table. “What’s wrong with his arms?” she asked none-too sensitively. “They’re all bony! That is sooo cool!”   
  
Adora shot the child a glare.   
  
“Leave him alone!” Catra demanded pre-emptively of the others. “He’s sick, okay? He’s been like this for a long time!”   
  
“Alright, alright!” Entrapta announced, “He just passed out. He’s going to be okay.” She fiddled with various tools and got his armor back up and running. “I can get him into a chair. If someone can fetch a blanket, that would be nice. Can someone get a glass of water?”   
  
“On it!” Scorpia volunteered. Crashing from the kitchen was heard shortly as she had forgotten that Bright Moon’s water-glasses weren’t particularly made with grips for her claws in-mind.   
  
“Uggh!” Mermista grumbled as she went to help her.   
  
Hordak awoke with a grunt in his chair, utterly bewildered. Entrapta held a hair-tendril to his forehead and two others on his shoulders. “Stay right there!” she ordered.   
  
“What happened?” he asked her and her alone.   
  
“You got in a tizzy and passed out.”   
  
“A tizzy,” he grumbled.   
  
“And don’t tell me that you’ve never been in a tizzy! You just had one and you passed out!”   
  
Hordak glared around the room. Scorpia fumbled with a tray of water-glasses that Mermista steadied. “In front of everyone…” he growled low.   
  
“Fraid so,” Entrapta told him. “I said that you should have stayed in today! I could have covered this!”   
  
“Why is the flower-one crying?”   
  
“Oh, you must be in so much pain! We didn’t know! In Plumeria we have many kinds of medicinal herbs!”   
  
If looks could kill, Hordak would have murdered Perfuma fifty times over.   
  
Glimmer sat down and regarded him from across the table bluntly. “You could have just told us about your needs and Bright Moon would have been happy to accommodate you.”   
  
Scorpia set a glass of water before him. It slipped, spilling about half of its contents on the table. “Wha-oops!” she apologized.   
  
Entrapta, mask-down, continued to adjust his armor as he sat and shivered.   
  
“It would have done no good,” Hordak said to Glimmer. “From what I see, Bright Moon cannot even see to Scorpia’s needs. Glasses with a simple divot are simple for her to hold.”   
  
Catra’s ears perked. She looked straight at Adora. They both shared a gaze with each other, then turned to Hordak and then to Scorpia. It was true. The Fright Zone was made up of a variety of people with a variety of needs. The commissary always had special glasses and utensils for Scorpia and other Scorpions in their ranks as well as special clothing and armors for the lizard-folk and other people with tails. In addition to the ration-bars, Catra had an animal-protein-heavy diet. Kyle had a bulk-up diet for a while, which hardly worked for how often Catra stole from him, but the Horde tried. Commander Cobalt seemed to handle most of the logistics, but it was true that there seemed to be accommodations for everybody, regardless of species and other special needs.   
  
Adora and Catra found themselves staring at Hordak as Sea Hawk and Frosta wrapped a blanket around him and he shakily took a sip of water. Entrapta stood by, putting away her tools, her bug-like mask still down. The two former Hordeswomen had a sudden revelation. While Hordak’s operation was all about “showing no weakness,” he had, the entire time, provided resources for his troops that accommodated for such.   
  
Bright Moon seemed to do this little.   
  
Adora had a brief flash of memory to how Glimmer had her own bed set up – how she couldn’t even get into her own bed when she had been affected by Shadow Weaver’s magic and could not use her teleportation-power. She’d said that she’d never even been sick before, due to her mother’s immortal-nature.   
  
Right now, Hordak, who had long discouraged any display of weakness, was barely keeping it together in a chair at the war-table after just having suffered a dead-faint. And this entire time, the Horde actually had catered to small differences in abilities in small ways.   
  
Hordak was not happy.   
  
“Queen Glimmer?” Entrapta asked, “Do you have a guest bedroom where he can lie down for a while?”   
  
“Yes,” Glimmer sighed. “We’ll continue negotiations tomorrow.”   
  
Hordak held up a finger. “Pillows,” he said.   
  
Everyone turned to him with a collective “Huh?”   
  
“Extra pillows. Please.”   
  
Everyone gasped in another “Huh?”   
  
It was the first time any of them had ever heard the former Lord of the Horde say “Please.”   
  
  
  
  



	6. You Are Not a Failure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrdapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 6 - Internalized Abelism. 
> 
> Entrapta shares her insecurities about friendships and her ability to deal with people with Hordak.

**You Are Not a Failure**

  
  
Hordak could not believe the words that were coming out of Entrapta’s mouth. She made it clear that she was easy with failure, that she valued it as an opportunity to learn (which was something that Hordak had trouble wrapping his mind around. In the Horde, something either worked or it didn’t). Still, it was one thing when a machine was being frustratingly obstinate, another to hear a person who had given power to everything she touched saying it about herself.   
  
The new armor felt powerful, but he had trouble with what Etherians called “thanks.” It entailed admitting that one needed help, falling into the failure-binary. Imp gave him a kick and he thanked Entrapta for her work in the coldest, most professional way he could. He had to save face, after all. After that moment, a certain rage swelled up in his belly. There was a notion that he needed to correct.   
  
“You are not a failure! Any who discount you are utter fools!”   
  
“Thanks,” she said, giving him the smallest waggle of her eyebrows, “I like being friends with you, too.”   
  
They got back to work, which mostly entailed Hordak trying out the new armor with Entrapta observing him. He couldn’t let it go.   
  
“Why in the world would you call yourself a failure?” he asked Entrapta. “Your skill… it is beyond compare.”   
  
“Well,” she answered, walking around on her hair, her attention on trying to get aspects of the portal-frame pieced back together, “That’s the thing. People only like me for my skill. People…I’m not good with people. I don’t know what to say to make them happy. I’m what everybody calls a weirdo.”   
  
“Weirdo?”   
  
“I’m not like other people.” Her welding-mask was firmly down. “I don’t read them. I don’t know what they want. I make people mad and I don’t know why. People in the Maker’s Guild have called me ‘annoying.’ I don’t know how not to be ‘annoying.”   
  
“Many things annoy me,” Hordak asserted. “You are not among them.”   
  
“Thanks.”   
  
The two worked in companionable silence for a while. Emily assisted Entrapta and Imp watched.   
  
Entrapta wrenched a bolt into place. “When I’m in a group, I don’t think they really like talking to me. I always feel ‘off to the sidelines.’ And, eventually, everyone leaves me. So I just make things and fix things. That makes people happy.”   
  
“I wo-” Hordak caught himself. It was the stark truth that when Horde Prime came to get him, if the portal worked, that he would have to leave. He had his duties to his brother. Entrapta could be given a place of service in the Empire, but what they had now, closely-working, was unlikely. He was an Exalted Brother. She was a planetary native.   
  
She put up her mask and smiled beatifically at him. “Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I’m used to being a failure. As long as I have science, as long as I have machines to work on, I’ll be okay.”   
  
“But don’t you want…” Hordak didn’t finish his sentence. He hadn’t been much for humanoid companionship on this backwater, but he did miss the companionship of his brothers. He’d coped with loneliness, but did not expect it to be forever, and, of course, he had Imp.   
  
“Nope!” Entrapta said shaking her head. “People have too many variables for me to parse. Though…even if they only like me for what I do, I like…having friends… the data holds steady that Catra and Scorpia are friends. I have a chart on interests, compatibility, what they let me do. Scorpia gets big points for making tiny snacks… Oh, and you too! Let me show you!”   
  
Hordak followed Entrapta to a screen in one corner, one that she has completely taken over without his notice. She promptly drew up graphs listing various people she’d known and knew.   
  
“You have the highest compatibility-rate! Same EXACT interests. High intelligence-factor…”   
  
“Hmm.”   
  
“But I must be annoying you in some way, right? I always annoy people when I work with them for too long.”   
  
Hordak’s eyes widened and he choked a little. “Uh… no! As I said, there are many annoyances in my life and you are NOT among them!”   
  
Entrapta turned to him and gave him a sad smile. “I wish I could believe that. If you leave, it’s not your fault. I was broken before I was born.”   
  
Hordak choked again. Unpleasant memories of the day he was called out by Horde Prime and cast away on what was intended to be his final mission came to him. The defect in his cloning guaranteed that he was broken before he was born. Entrapta? She was perfect!   
  
“I…I do not see…”   
  
“My brain,” Entrapta explained. “My brain’s all wrong.”   
  
“You are the most intelligent being I have encountered upon this ball of sparkly dirt!”   
  
“No,” Entrapta said, “I’m stupid. I’m good with tech, but with social experiments… I just don’t get them. I’m always going to be stupid about that.”   
  
Hordak did not know what to do with this information. “Which fool ever called you stupid? I shall mount their spine atop my throne!”   
  
“That’s sweet of you,” Entrapta replied, “but don’t worry about that. I’m fine. I just know how I am. I didn’t belong with the Princesses. I belong here, with the Horde’s tech. And you don’t seem to mind having me here.”   
  
“Mind, I…”   
  
The words caught in Hordak’s throat. At long last, he stood straight and tall, putting his fists on his hips. “Entrapta. You will always have a place here.”   
  
Entrapta adjusted a percentage point up-ward on her friendship-chart beside Hordak’s icon on the data-screen.   
  



	7. The Best of Many Worlds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 7 - Attraction 
> 
> Entrapta knew that Hordak wasn't someone that many people found aesthtically-pleasing. She couldn't help but find him fascinating.

**The Best of Many Worlds**   
  
  
Hordak was out of his armor. This was a rare moment. Entrapta needed to fix something internal on the artificial biceps and he was letting his skin breathe. He stood in the light of one of the screens with portal-diagrams and codes running on it, able to keep upright without trembling. He had not overexerted himself recently and was having a good day.   
  
As Entrapta tinkered, she caught himself looking at his back. There was something about the way his shoulders were both bony and broad that awakened something in her. According to her studies on people and judging by the reactions of people in the Horde, Hordak was not generally deemed aesthetically-pleasing. He was what people called “scary,” and “intimidating.” Some of the cadets who’d grown up on Shadow Weaver’s stories apparently thought that he was a “vampire.” Some soldiers mocked him as “no-nose” when they didn’t think Imp was around (and didn’t realize that Entrapta was in a vent above them with a recorder). Entrapta knew that his general thin-ness and the scarring and discoloration of his skin were points against him in terms of conventional beauty.   
  
And it mattered not a shred to her. Skin in colors she rarely saw in a humanoid and in large, differing patches (not unheard of, but not common) made him interesting to look at – fascinating, even.   
  
Another thing that Entrapta noticed about Hordak was the shape of his waist in relation to his hips. His upper body was a masculine frame, but his waist had measurements that were more common to one assigned female at birth. His thighs – which he always kept exposed through the slits in his dress / lay of his tabard, could belong to either of the most common humanoid sexes and were, perhaps, the only part of him that appeared strong when he was not covered up in armor. He was an alien, so it was only natural for Entrapta to wonder what his internal biology might be like. As far as she knew, Hordak might not even have had a biological sex or might, indeed, be something mixed or a multitude.   
  
Scientific observations aside, she really liked it. Despite her lack of social graces and her introverted personality, from a viewership-standpoint, she’d found features to like in both masculine and feminine forms. Hordak had a rather elegant combination that she found difficult not to stare at.   
  
He briefly turned his gaze and she slammed her mask down and buried herself in her work. He turned back to the codes and she cautiously peered at him once more.   
  
She knew that most people would find the ports in his back alarming. They were where his old armor had attached into his musculoskeletal system and into his nervous system. By their positions, it seemed unlikely that he had implanted them into himself, even with his armory-machine. Entrapta knew that Hordak had many internal cybernetics. If they hadn’t shown up on the equipment she used in diagnostics for robots as confirmation, she could tell by the way certain muscles moved – and particularly by the way things moved beneath the skin on his gapped arms.   
  
So much tech! It made her knees weak! Sure, she had implanted some stuff into her scalp to make better use of her hair, but she hadn’t been lucky enough to lose a limb in an accident yet, necessitating advanced prosthetics. Hordak, however… he had supplements INSIDE his body, all advanced alien technology! He was likely “born” with it, or, more properly, constructed with it. He was a fully-realized techno-organic being!   
  
Liminal – that’s what he was. Between worlds… in many ways.   
  
Entrapta wondered what it would be like to touch him in particular places without her gloves on – if he’d even let her. Of particular interest were his arms and his shoulders, where she could see machine-aspects. Oooh! To feel the technology work underneath his muscles!   
  
She hinged her mask up. Yes, she could get a better look in the light of the screen without the red of her lenses in the way.   
  
Hordak turned suddenly at just the wrong moment for her.   
  
“Entrapta,” he said, “Perhaps you should take a rest. You appear to be flushed.” 


	8. Benefits of Failure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month   
> Oct. 8 - Work 
> 
> Hordak and Entrapta do the work of cleaning up Beast Island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some alternate character-interpretation on the Princesses, done purposefully / creative-liberties. I do see actual canon fairly differently, but thought that this made for a more fun set-up.

**Benefits of Failure**  
  
  
The first few days on Beast Island had been taken with little trouble. Hordak couldn’t say that he was unhappy with his sentence when the toxic trees and underbrush were so easily cut away using a standard Galactic Horde combat-laser-cannon. They were burned away even more easily with the improvements that Entrapta had made to the cannon. Of course Entrapta would improve upon Horde Prime’s designs, even his destructive designs. She told him that by her analysis of the Horde computer systems, she believed that Prime had once been a master-designer, but had fallen into what she called a creative-sterility.   
  
“Born of overconfidence and a lack of failure!” she declared. “If he’d failed more often and chosen to learn from the data, we wouldn’t have won!”   
  
Hordak shuddered at the thought. To think that only a short while ago he was proud to be an “exalted brother.” He smiled as he watched Entrapta repair a corrugated aluminum wall of the little nest they’d made in Hell. He’d not been unhappy with his sentence at first, but had become increasingly annoyed the further they went further in. They had burned away the corrupted elements on the coast, allowing the ancient seeds of plant-life that had once been native here to bloom under the fresh infusion of Etheria’s freed magic. However, in the interior, the First Ones’ toxic wastes and the mutated, techno-organic wildlife remained. Entrapta wanted to preserve as much of it as it was safe to – for scientific interest. No matter how much cleanup they were ordered to do, she didn’t want to be responsible for the extinction of the noble Pooka, nor did she want destroy Big Bertha, her partially-organic mini-mecha creation, whom she’d found again.   
  
Bertha was proving to be a good friend to both her and Hordak, carrying them and shielding them from danger as they traversed the island. Still, they eventually built a shelter as a kind of work-station, a good base of operations. At least it had been a serviceable shelter until the islands tendrils had discovered it, and them, and had grown up around it in a thick bracket. By this morning, they were pinned-down. 

  
The vines outside were currently spitting a corrosive acid, trying to get at them, but Entrapta was on top of it every step of the way. She turned to a device she had swiftly constructed that Hordak was presently working on. He had stripped the ends of a couple of wires they’d scavenged.   
  
“Alright, now splice them!”   
  
He twirled the ends of the wires together and Entrapta threw a switch. Electricity arched outside, throwing both vines and slathering pookas back with screeches and howls of protest. She re-set the switch.   
  
“That should keep them for a while!”   
  
Hordak cautiously peered out of their shed’s doorway at the carnage they’d caused. He checked his arm-cannon. “How much further in do you think it is safe for us to venture?”   
  
An errant vine, one that the electricity had missed, shot out from the ground and wrapped itself around his wrist – the one not equipped with the cannon – and started dragging him forward. More vines wrapped themselves around his legs. Bertha roared, coming out from behind the shack and pounding at the inky black matter. Entrapta screamed and grabbed the electrified spear she’d invented yesterday and stabbed at them. She pushed Hordak back inside their base with her hair and hit the frying-switch again.   
  
Hordak sat back on a ripped up plush-chair that they’d scavenged off the coast and caught his breath. “I regret how many I sent here,” he said with dipped ears, trying to shake off the mounting depression.   
  
“It’s the past now,” Entrapta assured him. “No changing it!”   
  
“This work is going to take one-thousand years at this rate!” he complained. “The coast was a simple matter. The rest of this accursed island is… a project that I fear is impossible.”   
  
“Hey, we’ll get it done in no-time! You’ll see! And look at all of the great stuff we’ve been able to make use of! Besides the FASCINATING First Ones’ tech, so much junk washes up here! I’m even thinking of leaving some patches in place… technological monstrosities! Natural-traps! I mean, we’re going to need to build good dungeon-mazes anyway if we want to make a proper palace to reign from!”   
  
Hordak’s eyes went wide. “What?” he asked.   
  
“What did you think we were going to do, Hordikins?”   
  
His ears flicked at the nickname. “I was under the impression that I was serving out a community-service sentence of repentance for my war-crimes and that you chose to join me of your own volition.”   
  
Entrapta reached through the doorway to pat Big Bertha on the “head.” She’d have to fetch Emily one day so that the two robots could meet, but thought that, at present, it was safer for Emily to stay in Scorpia’s care, just as Imp was in the care of one of the old Horde-squadrons. She gave Hordak a small, sad smile.   
  
“I don’t think the Princesses sent us here with the expectation that we were ever going to come back,” she said.   
  
“But...!” Hordak choked, half rising from his chair, but stumbling backward into it, “Adora freed me from Horde Prime! She could have easily obliterated me along with him, but chose to spare me!”   
  
“And then she was promptly voted down by the rest of the Alliance and King Micah in regards to allowing you into the rehabilitation program that they’re doing for the rest of the clones. They sent you here for a reason, Hordak, and I don’t think it’s just to start an atonement.”   
  
“So you mean... that they meant this as a form of execution and chose not to dirty their hands?”   
  
“Yep!”   
  
“It is poetic justice, I suppose. I never liked to touch those whom I found a threat if I could help it, either. Out of sight, out of mind.”   
  
“Exactly.”   
  
“Then way did they allow you to come with me?”   
  
“I would have destroyed all of their technology and programmed a robot-uprising against them if they hadn’t. They know this! Besides, I think that after seeing what I did to Horde Prime’s tech, they decided that I was too dangerous to live, too!”   
  
“Entrapta…”   
  
“They were never really my friends… or if they were, they were bad friends in the end. They think I couldn’t tell, but I knew they were scared of me.”   
  
“We should confound their expectations by finishing the work that they thought would kill us and return to the mainland victorious.”   
  
“That’s a nice thought, but I like the idea of making a new Crypto Castle, better! We can have the whole island! And Big Bertha and Emily, and we can get Imp, I can build more robots and we can take in any clones and Horde-soldiers that want to join us! We can make Beast Island a nation that no one will ever, ever bother… because if they do, we’ll have the island on our side!” Entrapta was bouncing on her hair and flapping her hands now. “Think about the possibilities! Pet pookas! Mazes! Traps! Cool weapons! Techno-organic monstrosities! Undisturbed astronomic-observation! Explosive experiments! And they won’t be able to stop us! Aahahahahaa!”   
  
Hordak smiled. Words could not convey how endearing he found Entrapta’s mad scientist-cackle. He had to admit that a failure to execute him sounded like the perfect opportunity to prove Etheria his worth.   
  
He grinned from pointy-ear-to-pointy ear. “Let’s really get to work, then,” he said.   
  
  



	9. A Conventional Romance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 9 - Human AU 
> 
> The our-world versions of Hordak and Entrapta are on their way to attend an anime-convention.   
> (Shout-out to Zenkaikon and Otakon).

**A Conventional Romance  
**  
  
“And look at this guy’s turn signal! Urrrgh!”   
  
“Hey, at least we got out of the part of the county with the buggies.”   
  
Hector had driven past city-scapes, suburbs and big farms, Estrella in the passenger seat. Most people came to Lancaster County for the tours of Amish-country. They had the least interest in Amish-country. Estrella had looked on in fascination out the window at an old-school, horse-drawn thresher in operation by a farmer in a field, noting “ancient technology,” but knew that certain friends of hers would get more out of the farm-tours; Peresephone (who had the nickname of “Perfuma” for some reason, despite her kick-ass given-name), who’d appreciate the nature and agriculture in general, and Adora, an equestrian who had been on the lookout for serious horse-tack shops.   
  
No, today, Hector and Estrella were headed into the city-proper, to the Lancaster County Convention Center, specifically – although to their hotel, first, for something that was sort-of the opposite of a tour of the Luddite-lifestyle. They were on their way to Zenkaikon – Pennsylvania’s premier anime convention. To tell the truth, it was a convention celebrating a variety of “geek” hobbies: Anime, cartoons, video games, science fiction and fantasy in general.   
  
They’d openly wondered if they were getting “too old,” for it all, but had pretty much dismissed it when, in the year before last of their convention-going past, they’d met a 60-something year old gentleman who had done a spot-on cosplay of Iroh from _Avatar: The Last Airbender._ The last time they’d been to Otakon – another convention that they’d liked, a couple of states over and a longer drive for them, they’d found “fans of their era” cosplaying the Ghostbusters, the occasional Gendou Ikari and Misato from _Neon Genesis Evangelion,_ and even a few folks still willing to don the garb of Vash the Stampede from _Trigun_ around.   
  
The pair found being able to afford money or time going to conventions precarious most years, not to mention Hector’s always-shaky physical health, but they went whenever they could. Last year, due to a specifically-dire world-event, all conventions were cancelled. This year they were vaccinated and ready to go.   
  
“A New York license-plate. Should have known…”   
  
“Stop grumbling at the traffic. You’re gonna miss our turn-off!”   
  
A Toyota ahead of them suddenly stopped, prompting Hector to slam the breaks, shake his fist in the air inside their Volvo and shout. “Learn to drive, Jersey-ite!”   
  
Hector claimed that he enjoyed driving. Estrella knew that he was fooling himself. She only let him drive because he claimed that she “drives like crazy.”   
  
“Turn right in thirty seconds,” the GPS blared.   
  
“That can’t be right,” Hector complained. “I remember it being a road up.”   
  
“No, no, no, that as the other hotel from last time! Remember we booked the cheaper one this time. Just follow Emily,” Estrella insisted.   
  
“I can’t believe you named our GPS.” He sighed and obeyed.   
  
They did the work of finding their destination, getting a key-card and dragging their luggage up a flight of stairs.   
  
“Are we going to be okay?” Estrella asked. “We should request another room! I thought we’d booked one on the ground floor!”   
  
“It’s alright, it’s alright,” Hector assured her, trembling hand gripped to the hand-rail as he carried the lightest bag in the other.   
  
Once inside and after accessing the WiFi so that they could look up the convention’s events, they decided to break out their cosplay-materials.   
  
“Hmmm… red contacts… blue body-paint, white pancake-makeup,” Estrella said as she laid everything out on a bed. She fixed the purple hair-extensions into her purple-dyed pony-tails. She inspected the welding-mask she’d found as a lucky eBay-find. It even had the circular-lenses she’d been looking for (most had a single visor-strip for vision). “Oh, can’t forget your ears!”   
  
Hector smiled as he sat on the room’s other bed. He was disappointed in its narrow size. He was hoping that they’d have a bed big enough for two so that they could share and make one bed into a dedicated swag-station for their luggage and merch. They’d probably have to dump stuff on the floor so that Estrella could have the kind of room to stretch out that she liked whenever they got to actually sleeping.   
  
“Alright, you’re a bit more complicated with all of the makeup, so we’ll do you first!”   
  
Hector longed for the days when he could get away with playing more human-characters, regardless of skin-tone, but today was “anything for Es’tra.” He hadn’t bothered to pale his dark skin when he was Sesshomaru back during his then-girlfriend’s _Inuyasha_ -phase, when she _insisted_ upon him playing a sexy-demon, but for this character, it was fairly essential, as well as the red contact-lenses for the both of them. His were special ones that would cover up the sclera as well as the pupil and he wondered if he would be able to see well with them at all.   
  
They’d argued over and planned what to play this year, going through many options. They were officially married now, and so they wanted to do the official-couple thing in their costumes. They’d contemplated Kirito and Asuna, but knew that they’d probably get harassed by people who didn’t like _Sword Art Online_. They’d thought about Link and Midna from _The Legend of Zelda_ –with Hector specifically wanting to get black makeup to play Dark Link, cementing the darkness / “twilight” themes. (This is why they had the special red contact-lenses at the ready, an abandoned costume-prospect).   
  
In the end, however, they’d both decided to play characters from an anime-like American animated series that they’d liked.   
  
Estrella fixed Hector with pointed plastic ear-tips. She carefully painted his face bone-white and added some textured-grooves with some putty. During this, he painted his own hands, as much as possible, a stark blue. They were rather lucky to have a friend with a 3D printer they allowed them to use for some of the false “armor” components, the rest being some carefully-worked sheet-plastic.   
  
Estrella held up a hand-mirror to her mate. “Alright, does this meet your approval, ‘Hordak?”   
  
Hector smiled and adjusted his Halloween-shop red-vampire-teeth. “Ish gonna be a bit harsh to talk wish deese.”   
  
“Entrapta” gave him a quick peck on the lips.   
  
“Now yoush shmeared my makeup.” 


	10. Is Everyone, Like, Okay With This?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month   
> Oct. 10 - Kiss 
> 
> What could have happened at the show's finale. Short and sweet.

**Is Everyone, Like, Okay With This?  
**  
  
  
“HORDAK!”   
  
Hordak, to put it bluntly, was stunned when Entrapta leapt upon him, circling her arms around his waist. It had been a rather surprising day. It had started with him following along with orders from his brother, progenitor and emperor – having his doubts and visions of his life on Etheria – but firmly within Prime’s grip. The climax of the day found him shooting the physical-god in the back and throwing him down into an abyss. It had culminated in an experience of possession and of having Prime’s essence cast out of him by Etheria’s chosen-protector. He’d honestly been getting his bearings when he found his lab partner burying her face in his chest.   
  
He… rather liked their size-difference. It was like Entrapta fit him perfectly. Her embrace was warm and, for the moment, made him feel safe. He cautiously hugged her. She was trembling slightly. She’d just been through everything, too; the near-destruction of her planet, being brutalized by Horde Prime, who’d dragged her around by the hair… and to Hordak’s bitterness, having his own cannon aimed in her face. He wondered how this most beautiful of beings could be so forgiving.   
  
She suddenly grabbed him by the face with both hands, guided his face down to hers and planted a ferocious kiss upon his lips. Hordak was dumbfounded as she breathed him in like air. A spark went up his spine and he could feel his ears twitching. After that, he just gave in. She would NOT be denied this day, and as it turned out, neither would he. He practically melted before enthusiastically returning the kiss, playfully taking the small of her back in one of his massive hands and dipping her gently, as if they were dancing.   
  
Was this the first time they’d kissed? He couldn’t remember. His mind was still in a fog. At least now, it was in a rather pleasant fog.   
  
He could sense the eyes upon them. When they both came up for air, the Princess Alliance surrounded them. Catra’s face looked like it was caught up in a mid-snort. Adora was giving them a shy, awkward smile. Bow’s eyes were sparkling, as were Scorpia’s. Perfuma was gently smiling. Frosta was sticking her tongue out, making a face of disgust. Glimmer stood with a scowl and folded arms. Sea Hawk was rubbing the back of his neck and Mermista was sporting a look not unlike Catra’s.   
  
Various nearby clones stood around and they began cheering. “The Purple-One!” they shouted as they clapped.” (Hordak had no idea what was going on with his brothers, but later learned that some of his memories of Entrapta had leaked across the Hive Mind. He rather jealously-guarded her after that, even after they’d gained their individuality and their own lives. He would forever be left wondering just how much in terms of feeling had come across to them by pure accident).   
  
A clone that stood apart from the wildly dancing and clapping group waved at them. “Brother – er – Sister Entrapta!” he called cheerfully, “You have found Correct Hordak!”   
  
“Yep! Totally him!” she called back before raising herself up on her hair and kissing “Correct Hordak” again.   
  
“Alright, when do we apprehend the dangerous subject for, you know, the war-crimes?” Mermista asked. “PDA, Geek Princess, PDA…”   
  
“Let them have their moment,” Adora said. 


	11. Painless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month   
> Oct. 11 - Sleeping 
> 
> (Written a posted a day late). 
> 
> Hordak and Entrapta discover a side-effect of the new LUVD-armor.

**Painless  
**  
  
“Hordak, can you hand me a ball-peen mini-hammer?”   
  
“Hordak? Did you hear me?”   
  
Entrapta cautiously tapped on the right shoulder of her lab partner’s armor with a lock of hair.   
  
“Zzzzz…”   
  
Entrapta circled Hordak curiously. Imp flew to her side and landed on a table.   
  
“Would you look at that, Imp? He fell asleep standing up!”   
  
Sure enough, Hordak’s head was slumped forward and he was snoring softly.   
  
“Fascinating.”   
  
“Snrrght!”   
  
Hordak awakened with a start, his eyes suddenly wide. He staggered back, sending an arm up in a defensive gesture.   
  
Imp taunted him in his own voice; “Zzzz…”   
  
The overlord shook his head and composed himself. “What did you see, Entrapta?”   
  
“You were asleep! Does your species customarily sleep standing up?”   
  
Hordak straightened his hair back down into regulation slick-back. “Only in a resting-pod… and I was not in one.” He grunted and clenched his hands into fists at his side. “This is highly irregular!”   
  
“You must be very tired!” Entrapta said. “Come to think of it, we’ve been working all day since last night and it would be… hmmm… just over 27 hours! I really should sleep, too, but that’s why Scorpia got me that double-caffeinated cola from my stash! I think I’m riding a mania right now, too, but… you… maybe you should go to bed!”   
  
“I do not sleep.”   
  
“Huh? Everyone sleeps. Even Emily rests to recharge!”   
  
“I…” Hordak confessed, “I must rest sometimes, but not with work to be done.”   
  
“At least sit down, okay? You were asleep standing up!”   
  
“That was because I was comfortable.”   
  
Entrapta regarded him quizzically. “I don’t imagine standing straight up to be the most comfortable sleep-position. Ooh! Your legs must lock up like a horse!”   
  
Hordak reluctantly sat down on the one couch that was in the room – the very same one he’d found himself blanket-wrapped on after the time when Entrapta saw him collapse. His brow furrowed in consternation and he looked away from her in… shame?   
  
“I am generally in too much pain to sleep when I attempt to,” he sighed, “so I take it rarely. There are certain…chemicals… and even Etherian herbs that I have found that help, but… Entrapta, this armor!”   
  
“Oh, it’s not perfect…” she said, inspecting it with heir hands, hair and tiny tools. “You got shocked twice today!”   
  
“I know, but when it is functioning properly, I’ve been feeling… relaxed.”   
  
“That’s good, but you still shouldn’t’ sleep standing up! It’s bad for you your knees!”   
  
“Duly noted.”   
  



	12. Safe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 12 - Cuddling 
> 
> A sequel to the previous work, "Painless." 
> 
> There were certain dangers to relaxation

**Safe**  
  
  
 _“To find you in such a position, Lord Hordak… Do not worry. I’ll take care of the Horde for you, and I’ll make your end quick!”  
_  
Hordak startled awake. He panted and patted his person with one free hand. There wasn’t a mystically-imbued dragon-bone dagger embedded in his chest and Shadow Weaver was not standing above him.   
  
He had, in fact, fallen asleep in a vulnerable position – on the lounge in his Sanctum rather than in the interior chamber, where he typically slept after sealing it with security-codes that only he knew. Perhaps his brain was reminding him of his folly and so his dreams had awakened him before the subject of them became a reality.   
  
It took him a minute to realize that there was something warm against his body – something warm and gently moving – and it was nestled in the crook of one of his arms. He caught sight of lavender hair wound around his middle.   
  
“Entrapta,” he said quietly.   
  
Her head was rested upon his chest. Heat rose up in his cheeks and his ears.   
  
They had both been working for many hours on the engines for the portal. Hordak recalled her awakening him when he’d fallen asleep on his feet. The new armor that she’d built for him was holding his body together well enough to eliminate most of his pain. He quietly grumbled. This could present a danger. If he was relaxed enough to sleep without preparation, he could be at the mercy those that were jockeying for position in the Horde – those fools who had no idea of his true plans. Also, there was the matter of Shadow Weaver, who had escaped her punishment to parts unknown. She knew too much and if she ever returned…   
  
…Well, Hordak did not want to be caught asleep!   
  
“Mrrpfh?” Entrapta said, stirring.   
  
“Entrapta,” Hordak intoned, “You should rise and get to your bed.”   
  
“Mmmm…” she replied sleepily, “You’re comfortable.”   
  
“Entrapta?”   
  
“Zzzz…”   
  
Hordak sighed. At that moment, Imp came flying over to them. The bat-winged child landed on his stomach and cuddled into Entrapta’s hair there.   
  
“Not you, too.”   
  
Imp screeched at him and settled into a fetal-curl.   
  
Hordak accepted that he was trapped. 


	13. The Bright Moon Mysteries: The Case of the Missing Pillows!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month   
> Oct. 13 - Comfort 
> 
> It was Queen Glimmer's own fault that she did not see to her prisoner's medical needs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very small shout-out to another story, "The Trial of Hordak" by TeaWithNyathlotep, even though this piece takes place under different, more comedic circumstances. If you've read that fic, you'll see the reference.

**The Bright Moon Mysteries: The Case of the Missing Pillows!!**   
  
  
“Arrrrggh!” Glimmer stormed about the hallways of Bright Moon, fists balled at her sides.   
  
“What’s going on?” Bow asked, poking his head out of the armory.   
  
“Bow, do you know what’s happening to our pillows?”   
  
“The pillows?”   
  
“First, it was the staff. Pillows started disappearing from their bedrooms! Then, the couches! The dignitaries’ rooms are missing pillows, too! It was just one here or there… And yesterday, Mermista’s seal-plushie went missing! We’ve got a pillow-thief around here!”   
  
“Maybe we should get Mermista on it. That sounds like a Mer-Mystery to me! Oh no! What if I’ve been sleepwalking and stealing pillows in my sleep?”   
  
“Calm down, Bow, it’s not you. And… whoever it is, it is the last straw! ALL the pillows from our bed are now gone!”   
  
“Honey, have you seen my special back-pillow?” Micah was calling down the hall.   
  
“The thief got your dad, too?!” Bow yelped.   
  
Micah was holding a small pillow that Angella had embroidered, so at least that was safe.   
  
“Where’s Adora? Maybe she’s killing beds again…” Glimmer huffed.   
  
“Or Catra, those claws, you know,” Bow suggested sheepishly.   
  
“Kowl isn’t missing, is he?” Micah asked.   
  
“No, he’s still there, it’s just the pillows! Well, and Mermista’s seal.”   
  
“Kowl could be next!” Bow gasped.   
  
Micah hastily passed the embroidered pillow into Bow’s hands. “I am entrusting this to you,” he said. “Protect it with your life. Glim and I need to check on our prisoner.”   
  
“Isn’t it unfair to keep him confined?” Bow asked. “I mean, Adora believes that he is no longer dangerous and Entrapta vouches for him.”   
  
“He is a flight-risk,” Glimmer specified. “And with Entrapta… Without our combined-magic, she’ll take him and hijack Darla!”   
  
“The People of Etheria will have their say,” Micah affirmed. “I have my own opinions on the matter and insomuch as they have volunteered, I think that Adora will make a fine defense-attorney and Mermista fine prosecution.”   
  
Micah opened the door to the guest room. It was dimly-lit save for the magical sigils that lined the walls. He dispelled the one at the doorway to get a look inside.   
  
“Hiss!”   
  
Glimmer scowled. The occupant of the bed along one wall glared back at her, red eyes and teeth in the dark.   
  
She sighed and got her composure. Bow clutched his pillow. “Still alive, apparently,” she said. “Hordak, would you like some dinner, at least?”   
  
“I am attempting to rest. Get out.”   
  
“What the?” Micah said as his eyes adjusted to the change in light. Glimmer and Bow saw it, too.   
  
“How in the world?”   
  
“The culprit has been found!” Bow declared, holding a finger in the air.   
  
“Did he get out?” Micah asked, checking the sigils with no small amount of panic.   
  
Hordak was resting, without his armor (which had been taken from him for the time-being as a precaution) upon piles of pillows. He was also clutching a toy seal.   
  
“STOP STEALING OUR PILLOWS!!!” Glimmer shouted.   
  
“I know of no such theft!” Hordak said, shifting to sit up. “I have remained in this room my entire time here.”   
  
“YOU’RE SITTING ON EVERY PILLOW IN BRIGHT MOON!”   
  
Bow held up her mother’s handiwork.   
  
“Well, almost every pillow!”   
  
“I assure you, Queen Glimmer, Prince-Consort Bow and King Micah that I was given these to accommodate my medical needs. If you did not authorize it, I do not know what to say.”   
  
“Urrrgh!” Glimmer put her hand to her head. “You could have asked.”   
  
Everyone’s attention was caught by a shuffling in the ceiling. A vent panel unscrewed itself and swung open. A purple tendril came out of it, dangling a pillow down to Hordak’s bed.   
  
“Here you go!”   
  
“ENTRAPTA!”   
  
  



	14. Stories in the Dust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month   
> Oct. 14 - Home 
> 
> Welcome to Horde World...

**Stories in the Dust  
**  
  
Entrapta and Hordak had wandered off, ahead of the group. The suits she had designed for the crew to shield the radiation had been working perfectly. Adora, Catra, Glimmer and Bow were inspecting the dried and petrified remains of a forest elsewhere, leaving Entrapta holding a measuring-device and Hordak following her into the large city they’d found. At this point, it was uncertain if She-Ra’s magic could restore anything, but she was determined to take a look at a bunch of dead trees. The city was far more important to Hordak.   
  
They had discovered it – “Horde World.” At least, that is what the record aboard the Velvet Glove had named it. It had been the home of Hordak’s people – or at least, of their ancestors - before Horde Prime had cloned them all from a single genetic specimen with custom alterations and cybernetics. Some of the “spacebats” as the Etherians had taken to calling them recalled something deep from the old collective-memory, something ancient that Prime could not fully erase – a vague sense of a “home,” although the true name of their planet was long forgotten.   
  
Hordak looked up at buildings – largely made of concrete or framed in various kinds of metals, as he and Entrapta walked alone in the streets. There was an aqueduct, something that appeared like it might be a religious-building of some sort, various habitations and what looked like places of commerce. The light from the single sun the world orbited sparkled off of glass along window-panes and in the street, much of it shattered and in many colors. Any windows that were intact were stained and in ornate patterns. Various pipes and railings crisscrossed the skyline of the city, making it look vaguely like the Fright Zone, but less like an industrial wasteland. There were clearly plots for gardens about, but nothing grew there.   
  
Of life, there was nothing. The entire city was empty.   
  
“My theory is that a neutron-bomb was used somewhere near here,” Entrapta chatted away. She’d developed a recent fascination with nuclear physics upon hacking into the Velvet Glove’s mainframe and deciphering the “Hordish” written language, which wasn’t much different than the most common language used on Etheria. Of this, she posited common roots that had branched off from The First Ones and the Galactic Horde, with enough division and evolution to make First Ones’ script unknowable to most. Mathematics, of course, was universal and Hordak’s dear, destructive Entrapta had learned about weapons of mass destruction beyond her wildest dreams.   
  
And something had happened to her when she’d deciphered Horde Prime’s old files… Hordak had noticed rare emotions in her – fear; fear and a sense of sobering. This, itself, was a little strange given her fascination with the Heart of Etheria, but somehow knowing that the Heart of Etheria was not a singular entity, but that other weapons of similar magnitude had existed was somehow dampening to her spirits. Perhaps it was because she’d seen the records of them having actually been used and the lists of sheer numbers of dead and of the extinction of species, planets and technology.   
  
Entrapta liked explosions, high-tech weapons and general chaos. She didn’t as much like entire areas of knowledge being lost to science forever.   
  
She also didn’t like how the background radiation was messing with any digital data recording device she’d brought along and so had to resort to a pen and a notepad carried in her hair, which was flowing outside of her hazmat-suit, much like it had out of her space-helmet. This meant that special decontamination-measures for it would have to be taken when she boarded Darla, but the fit was tight enough that she was in no danger for the time being. She had decided, however, that yellow and orange really weren’t Hordak’s colors, or hers, but redesign would have to wait.   
  
“You see, that kind of bomb would have done little damage to the buildings not directly in its path, but would have obliterated anything organic,” she said, “Rather neat if someone wanted to get rid of all of the people in a city or country, but still have their infrastructure to work with… but it seems that there was a teeny miscalculation in how long the toxicity would remain around.”   
  
Hordak picked up a small coin, emblazoned with the profile-image of a spacebat. The figure looked like they had some variation in their features from what the Horde-clones had, but the image was still distinct. There was a statue in a square they’d passed of a figure wearing a cloak. There were a few statues and signs bearing the images of what looked to be another species – something with dog-like features. Perhaps there had been two different forms of sapient being here that had lived in harmony?   
  
Entrapta had said something about old stories of lycans – wolfmen, and vampires – blood-drinking folk who could transform into bats, and how the legends had that they had been bitter enemies. The thought of “werewolves and vampires” coming together in harmony warmed her heart somehow, even has Hordak reminded her that he was _not_ something as silly as a vampire. And the fact remained that he preferred a diet of nutritionally-balanced ration-bars, supplemented with fruit, although he admitted that the Horde’s amniotic fluid was originally engineered from and a part of his brothers’ blood.   
  
Hordak remained impassive as he tried to keep up with Entrapta through the city. She was darting around looking at every little thing. Much of it was wreck and ruin and he didn’t know what she’d hoped to find. Whoever his people had been before was gone now. He and his brothers were space-born and had been so for countless generations. Any connection they had to whoever had lived here was tenuous.   
  
They were trying to find anything and everything that would explain what had gone on here – the secrets of Horde Prime, anything about the species. They’d spend as long as the radiation would allow to gather any information at all. They had already been through the dust of a ruined library – or at least that’s what they thought it was, given its structure and a Hordish-script word similar to “Biblio” on the front of the building. What they had found was disappointing. Nothing of paper had survived what whatever had been dropped here and all of the electronics had been wiped out. They’d found some clay and metal tablets etched in some scripts neither of them could read that they’d already taken back to their ship to take home for analysis.   
  
However, they had found some artwork with visual cues to who the spacebats used to be, vases and paintings made from inorganic materials and of course the statues.   
  
The most astonishing thing about them – save for the figures with concealing cloaks (statesmen or saints, perhaps?) were that many, though not all, depicted people with wings. There were spacebats with mild features differing from the clones (an irregular ear there, a longer nasal bridge there, eyes with pupils) – and upon their backs (not unlike Queen Angella Entrapta had noted), there were wings. They were not feathered wings, but were very like Imp’s, only larger – the wings of bats, the great wings of dragons.   
  
“Do you think we used to fly, Entrapta?” Hordak asked, a small tremor sneaking into his voice.   
  
“Of course I do,” Entrapta responded. “Do you see bars over on that sky-rail? That’s a perch, Hordak! And don’t’ some of these buildings strike you as unusual? There are landings up there! I mean… not all of the artworks depict wings, so maybe there were some people without? Were they a sub-race? Was it a sexual-dimorphism thing? Were they disabled? But, yeah, it seems like at least some of your people could fly!”   
  
“He took our wings,” Hordak muttered.   
  
“Hmmm?”   
  
“Horde Prime. We do not know yet if he…caused this… or if he saved a remnant of us from our own warlike ways… Perhaps the tablets we found or deeper records of the armada that you haven’t cracked yet have the answers, but… either way… Prime… he took our wings away.”   
  
Entrapta smiled a sad smile at him. “Imp has wings.”   
  
“Indeed.” That seemed to make Hordak feel slightly better.   
  
They wandered into what appeared to be a residence. The objects within it were nestled under many layers of dust and ashes, which they swept away as well as they could. In their exploration, they found screens along the walls of one room, what appeared to be comfortable furniture for sitting, a table set not unlike a table on Etheria, although the utensils had alien-shapes, and pictures on the walls.   
  
Hordak brushed his hands over the cracked glass of a metal-edged picture fame, ridding it of concealing dust. A spacebat-family smiled back at him – a winged adult, an adult without wings and pair of small ones with features akin to Imp’s. He stood before it and stared, his jaw hanging open slightly, visible behind the window of his radiation-suit.   
  
“Hordak?” Are you okay?” Entrapta asked.   
  
Hordak staggered back and fell into one of the chairs, sending up a cloud of dust. Once it cleared and Entrapta could see his face again, she saw that he was weeping.   
  
“Hordak?”   
  
He lay his arms listlessly across his knees as he curled up, wracked with sobs.   
  
Entrapta patted his shoulder with a hair tendril. She thought she heard Adora and Bow out in the street, calling for them.   
  
“Give us a few minutes! We’re still finding stuff!” she called back.   
  
She wasn’t going to let them see their ex-conqueror like this. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies if the nuclear physics stuff is dubious. I was once playing Fallout 3 and questioned "Why would a teddy bear be intact when the little girl-skeleton holding it was obviously killed?" and my fiance' answered "A neutron bomb would do that." I don't know if he is correct on the type of nuclear bomb - but there is supposed to be one that does this very thing - designed to destroy people, but leave stuff. 
> 
> Feels good to do an angst-piece after all that fluff. I'm back in the saddle, baby!


	15. Project Harmonized Optimal Reserved Data Access (Class) - K

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 15 - Experiment 
> 
> Entrapta attempts to cheat death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Robin and Jerome are my recurrent clone-OCs. They first appeared as one-off random characters in "Never Let Them See You Bleed" and then they started demanding their own stories. "The Gift of a Name" and "Wounds to Scars" followed, as well as snippets of their lives on my tumblr. The main stories starring them (including any future ones) are / will be under the "Robin and Jerome's Excellent Adventures" series on my works.

**Project Harmonized Optimal Reserved Data Access (Class)-K  
**  
  
“Are you certain that you do not want us to stay, Lady Entrapta?”   
  
“It would be best if you didn’t. If…if something goes wrong… Occasionally, my experiments get…ex…explosive.”   
  
“Doubtful with this set-up,” another voice said, “But we shall respect your wishes. Let us hope that you have the breakthrough that you seek.”   
  
“We will remain elsewhere in the castle and ready to handle any arrangements.”   
  
“Thanks.”   
  
Hordak felt his left hand being gently squeezed. The voices around him were familiar.   
  
“Go in peace, brother,” the two voices that were not Entrapta’s said in unison, “You will live in the memory of us all.”   
  
Hordak was too weak to give a proper acknowledgement in return. He couldn’t even grasp his fingers over the hand holding his. He felt his hand being gently laid back down onto the strange, open-backed table that he was trussed-up on in Entrapta’s techno-organics laboratory. He could feel the cables plugged into his ports, hence the reason for the strange surface. Footsteps left the room and with it the faint powdery scent of fellow spacebats.   
  
Robin and Jerome, unlike him, were very kind-natured from the beginning of their severing from Horde Prime. At the same time, a visit from them when one was ill was the opposite of good tidings. The Brethren over the years had taken to calling them the “Endlings” or “They-Who-Finish.” Some of the Etherians called them “Grim Reapers.” It wasn’t an insult. They did not kill. They had started out their first years of freedom seeking out nameless Horde-clones that had fallen in the War of Etheria and its aftermath and bestowing names and proper graves for them, and had shifted in recent years to taking care of ceremonial arrangements for the named dead and comforting the dying. Their insights as spacebats into spacebat-psychology made them basically the only people who could do their chosen profession with the degree of sensitivity necessary, although they were training students in their craft. They were accepting of any newfound spiritual views (or lack thereof) that any of their fellows had replaced the worship of Prime with. They were even accommodating to those that still believed in “The Spirit of Prime” in altered ways if that was where they were at their last breaths.   
  
They were even accepting of this unorthodox way of facilitating a passing; the grand experiment that Entrapta was desperate to try on Hordak when it became clear that his defects would overtake him. No one else had dared sign off on her experimenting with them like this. This would be a first – if it worked.  
  
Robin and Jerome had been summoned here for equipment and technique as much as they had been for comfort and ceremony. They used modified diagnostic-cables for plugging into a clone’s mental-data in their work and they knew how to use them without killing a weakened subject or being overly-invasive. Entrapta had needed their assistance, which they had given her gladly if with a bit of confusion. She was about to attempt something that she knew that she could not do yet to any purely-organic beings but had a chance to do for a Horde-clone; one in particular. She thought that she could preserve Hordak’s consciousness within her castle’s computer-network. A shaky experiment to be sure, but literally do-or-die. Before he’d gotten too weak to respond, he’d expressed that he didn’t think it would work, but had consented to trying it.   
  
She and Hordak had exhausted all solutions in regards to his failing health. Even She-Ra could not heal him completely, although she had bought him several years of decent health the last time he’d declined. She had visited a few months ago and tried, but he was just too far gone for the magic to have any effect any longer. Hordak had made his peace with the Princesses and his request to die peacefully with Entrapta at his side was respected.   
  
Today was the day. His progressive diminishment could not be denied. He couldn’t even hold his head up anymore and could barely twitch his fingers and toes. He could no longer speak and his vision was fuzzy and growing dark. Pain was subsiding, at least. He didn’t have the strength to speak anymore, but he could whisper words yesterday. Robin and Jerome had recorded his last words – one of their services for the sake of their clients’ loved-ones.   
  
He felt Entrapta stroke his head and brush back his hair. “Are you ready, Hordak? We have a narrowing window of opportunity. Try to hold on for me as long as you can. If this doesn’t work…I… I want to say I’m sorry. I love you.”   
  
He felt a feather-light kiss on his still lips.   
  
“I am going to start the download now. I hope to see you on the other side.”   
  
Hands and hair quickly clacked on multiple keyboards. An electric-sound hissed through the air and switches and levers were pulled. Hordak breathed in and breathed out a final time as he felt everything fading.   
  
“Alright,” Entrapta said, exhausted, slumping in her chair. She waited. The enormous main screen before her remained blank: no changes in readings or code. She turned back to the still body on the table, now devoid of all life.   
  
“Hordak?” She asked with a broken voice.   
  
Her hair went limp.   
  
“Oh, Hordak…”  
  
Entrapta was normally at peace with failure since she could always learn from it, but not today. This was her last chance to save Hordak, and she had failed. His eyes were halfway open. She gently closed them and tilted up his jaw to close his mouth. She tenderly stroked his face.   
  
She turned back to her main console, not wanting to look at him anymore. She breathed in and out deeply, like Perfuma had taught her. She turned to what had always comforted her in trying times – data. Perhaps there was some data she could glean from this, at the very least. She might as well comb through it. At the moment, she was too numb to cry. She was aware that she would cry herself sick later, but, right now, she was filled with the odd buzz of fresh-depression.   
  
The typing cursor was moving on its own. Curious.   
  
She blinked as letters began appearing. Fascination mounted as words appeared. She let out a small, sharp squeal.   
  
There, in green light against the black screen was a single sentence.   
  
**HELLO, LAB PARTNER.**   
  
“Hordak!”


	16. Luxury

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month   
> Oct. 16 - Dinner 
> 
> Entrapta thinks that Hordak deserves a luxury that he has long denied himself.

**Luxury  
**  
  
Entrapta had learned what the Horde’s ration-bars had been made of long ago. Hordak ran a Spartan organization, believing that basic nutrition was all his troops needed. When she had first joined the Horde and was presented with these rations (the first thing she did was to cut them into tiny squares so she could eat them) the next was to scavenge up some chemistry-supplies to analyze their composition.   
  
They had been made of many kinds of bio-matter; basic grains from territories that the Horde had annexed, protein originating from insects and the occasional large ungulate and quite a bit of artificially-grown matter. (Entrapta had found out to her fascination that the gray kind favored by most soldiers actually had, unknown to them, a touch of Hordak in them! He had cloned a matrix of his own cells as a protein-booster. Thankfully, nothing of his defect was transferable). Catra had been horrified back when Entrapta had revealed her findings. Scorpia was surprisingly unfazed.   
  
After the War for Etheria, Entrapta had gotten her hands on samples of the “amniotic fluid” that Horde Prime’s clones were fed. It had the disturbing element of sharing a large part of its composition with Horde-clone blood, which Entrapta had learned it was made from as a base. Since perpetual auto-cannibalism was unsustainable long-term, various things were added to it in processing; plant and animal matter from many worlds and cells that exhibited photosynthesis with exposure to astral radiation.   
  
Entrapta’s many studies – partly out of pure curiosity, but mostly in recent days to try to find source-nutrition for the multitude of Hordak’s brothers so that they would not starve to death once their space-borne supplies ran out – all came to one conclusion:   
  
Whether made planet-side or in space, Horde-food was depressingly bland.   
  
One of her discoveries gleaned from volunteers willing to let her examine their biology (mostly Hordak and the clone formerly known as Wrong Hordak) had given her hope of showing them all a new existence filled with bountiful flavors: The spacebats had been obviously cloned from a root-species that had been omnivores with a focus toward fruit. They would wean well onto Etherian cuisine!   
  
The sad thing was that she suspected that Hordak had known this during his entire time as leader of the Etherian Horde – hence the composition of the Horde’s bar-rations, but for some reason, he had not allowed his troops (or himself) the gift of flavor-variety. The poor man must have thought that it was Horde Prime’s will, a heresy to “excite the senses.”   
  
Well, she would just have to correct that, now wouldn’t she?   
  
The entire time they had done their work on Beast Island, they had lived off the rations they’d brought with them. It was efficient. Now that Hordak was allowed to live in Dryl with her, Entrapta decided to make his first night there special and had handed down special instructions to her chefs.   
  
This was how she found herself across a small table, elbows on it and her chin in her hands staring at a befuddled Hordak after her butler-bot had presented him with a bowl of fruit. A plate with similar things had been presented to her – all small fruits, various berries and sliced, fancy fruit and cream-cheese miniature sandwiches.   
  
“What is this?” Hordak asked simply, poking a claw at a mango.   
  
“If you don’t want the whole fruits, you can try one of my little sandwiches,” Entrapta offered.   
  
“I requested a brown ration-bar,” he grumbled.   
  
“I thought you should try it. I’ve already told you my findings.”   
  
“I do not need anything more than basic nutrition.”   
  
“I thought you deserved a little luxury.”   
  
“Luxury,” Hordak grumbled. “You would have me live like a princess.”   
  
“Well, you are living with one, now.”   
  
Hordak delicately took one of Entrapta’s miniature apricot and cream cheese sandwiches. He chewed it hesitantly.   
  
Entrapta leaned further forward on her elbows with a growing smile as his eyes widened. As he chewed, his ears twitched. He suddenly relaxed and closed his eyes in an expression of pure bliss.   
  
“Try some more.”   
  
Hordak attacked the mango that was in his bowl. He grabbed it up in one hand and tore into its flesh with his sharp teeth, letting juice run down his chin.   
  
Entrapta laughed. Her grumpy spacebat was making a discovery and in it, he was utterly adorable. 


	17. When the Night Reaps the Innocent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 17 - Worries 
> 
> War is never fair. Hordak thought of Etheria as a forgiving planet. He was wrong. Not everyone forgave and peace was the last thing that some people wanted.

**When the Night Reaps the Innocent  
**  
  
  
Entrapta cleaned herself up after leaving the finer details to those who were more practiced in the craft. Maybe if it was someone else, someone she didn’t know as well, she would have stayed, watched learned and experimented. In this case, she knew her limits, but had helped as best she could before the clone-medics had asked her to please get some rest and assured her that they would handle things from here.   
  
“Hordak?” she asked when she saw him on one of the castle balconies, looking out into the night. Dawn was approaching.   
  
“What do you have to report?” he asked her.   
  
She twirled her fingers and the ends of her hair. “Its touch and go,” she said. “The surgery has been completed, but the next few hours will tell if he will make it.”   
  
“Hmmm.”   
  
Earlier in the night, Glimmer had teleported herself, Bow and Kadroh (the clone formerly known as Wrong Hordak) into the main hall of the Crypto Castle. Kadroh was leaning on the two Etherians for support and trailing blood all over the floor.   
  
_“We were in the marketplace in Thaymore! Just browsing shops!” Glimmer said breathlessly, “And this jerk comes out of nowhere screaming about taking down the Horde to the last abomination!”  
  
“I tried to stop him, but he was too quick!” Bow exclaimed. “Dagger to the stomach! Adora’s off on that mission with Catra… and Glimmer’s dad is all the way in Mystacore! Kadroh said to come here!”   
  
“Netossa and Spinnerella caught the guy who did it, I swear, I’m going to need to add an actual prison to Castle Bright Moon at this point!”   
  
Kadroh had looked at Entrapta and Hordak helplessly as he was trembling in pain. “Brother…Brother Hordak? The war is over. Why would anyone hurt me?”_   
  
Entrapta had guided them to her techno-organics laboratory (a place where she’d treated Hordak when need arose and where other clones had injuries seen to). Luckily, there were always spacebats in Dryl with various areas of budding craft to call upon, for many of them had settled in the kingdom and there were more than a few that had served in a medical capacity aboard the Velvet Glove. While the clones had been interchangeable in tasks, Prime had dedicated a few to labor he’d either found too boring to do much guiding of his brethren in or which required a delicate touch. These included the decanting of newborns, the decommissioning of the aged and wounded, the preservation of his old vessels and the routine maintenance done on his latest vessel.   
  
There had never been any call in service to Horde Prime to save the lives or to ease the suffering of injured soldiers, but upon gaining freedom some of the clones who’d had the most experience with the old maintenance jobs drew upon their experience and had repurposed themselves into medical professionals for their own kind.   
  
Between Entrapta and a pair of medically-oriented spacebats, Kadroh was swiftly prepared for surgery to stem his bleeding and mend his wound. This had entailed Entrapta getting an up-close view of internal spacebat cybernetics, organs whose shapes were familiar and at least one that was not. The assassin’s dagger had been long, leaving damage that was brutal. Entrapta, at this point, did not know how long an estimate on Kadroh’s recovery would be. That is, if he woke up at all.   
  
Entrapta placed her hand on the balcony railing. To her surprise, Hordak clasped his hand over hers.   
  
“You’re worried, too, aren’t you?” she said.   
  
“Yes,” he answered.   
  
“I’m sure he’ll pull through, Kadroh is strong.”   
  
“It is not just him I am worried about,” Hordak grumbled.   
  
“Hmm.”   
  
“It makes sense for your people to despise me. By all rights, I should have been beheaded in Bright Moon’s square and acknowledge that I only escaped such a fate because She-Ra herself chose to spare me. It does not surprise me that my brothers are treated with a fair amount of suspicion, but I was beginning to believe – as a fool – that pardon was granted to them.”   
  
“Kadroh never set foot on Etheria until he was with us. He’s completely innocent in anything that happened here! It’s not fair!”   
  
Hordak turned to her, his gaze very serious. “War never is,” he said, matter-of-factly. “Your friends are generous. Many of the people of this world are easily-forgiving, but there are always those who are not. I shouldn’t have denied it. There will always be those who see even the most innocent and helpful of my brothers and only see my face, or Horde Prime’s.”   
  
Entrapta hugged him and he stroked her back. She buried her face in his chest and muffled “Does this mean I get to build weapons now?”   
  
“I would prefer it if we did not have to,” Hordak gravely answered. He sighed deeply. “I do not know if we can protect them all.”   
  



	18. Further Up and Further In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month   
> Oct. 18 - Risky 
> 
> Saving Queen Angella entailed a large degree of risk. Hordak wasn't about to let Entrapta take it.

**Further Up and Further In**   
  
  
“It’s working! It’s working! Bwahahahahaa!”   
  
Hordak smiled as he watched Entrapta’s enthusiasm. The pair had succeeded in building another dimensional-portal – this time in Entrapta’s spacious physics laboratory in the Crypto Castle, which had been essentially fitted into a new version of Hordak’s old Sanctum. The portal that had tunneled through Despondos had required Adora’s old sword. This one did not need it, thankfully, and instead employed scavenged Galactic Horde tech from the Velvet Glove combined with some standard First Ones power-crystals.   
  
The entire castle was browned-out and all inhabitants (organic, inorganic and cyborg – in the case of the clones living there) had been warned about disruptions to their daily routines and advised to stay far away from the lab.   
  
Entrapta was holding a tracker-pad, a modified version built after Bow’s. Tracker-pad schematics were not the only thing that she had borrowed from Bright Moon. She waved a shed-feather over a scanner.   
  
“We can only hope that we have hit the correct dimensional-trap,” Hordak intoned. “If we even find the former queen, I do not think she will be amenable to our presence.”   
  
“Bow told us that we can’t risk Glimmer, so it’s up to us. Besides, we’ve got sedatives! Ooh, once we get her down, I can study her and take samples! I’ve always wanted to study the biology of someone immortal!”   
  
“Let us not get ahead of ourselves. We do not know if we will find her.”   
  
The device in Entrapta’s hands let out a shrill beep. Emily, behind Entrapta, echoed it.   
  
“She’s there! She’s just beyond! Oh… but she’s not moving. It looks like one of us is going to have to go in!”   
  
Entrapta started running toward the portal. Hordak grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back, shielding her with his body.   
  
“No.” he said firmly.   
  
“But… we have to go get her! And I want to know what it is like in the space between worlds!”   
  
“No!” Hordak said again. He shook his head. “I already lost you once, when Catra sent you to Beast Island. I will not lose you again.”   
  
“Who will go in?”   
  
Emily beeped and chittered, bouncing on her legs.   
  
“Not you, Emily,” Entrapta said. “I don’t want to risk you, and besides, you don’t have any arms! We might need to haul her out!”   
  
Emily responded with a sad beep. Entrapta patted her top. “It’s okay. You’re going to help me with diagnostics later.”   
  
The shift of an armored boot caught Entrapta’s attention.   
  
“Hordak! Don’t!”   
  
It was too late. Hordak ignored the pain that moving too swiftly always caused him even when armored-up and dove into the swirling vortex of light and darkness. Thinking quickly, Entrapta grabbed his ankle with a lock of her hair. She braced herself to keep from getting sucked in and stayed close to the switch. She grabbed a coil of spare extension-cord and tossed it in after him. “Loop this around yourself!” she called after him.   
  
Hordak found himself floating in nothingness. An orange extension cord floated after him. “Entrapta,” he said, smiling as he grabbed it and knotted it around his midsection. He felt the hair slip from his ankle just as he’d gotten his tether cinched. One of them had to stay behind to guard the switch and to operate the controls to keep the portal stable. He wanted it to be Entrapta, in case he couldn’t come back. Etheria needed her – her knowledge, her inventions and her cheerful spirit. The planet still feared him. If the worst happened, he would be no loss…   
  
As Hordak floated, the nothingness gave way to flashes of what looked like lightning. The flashes melded into his mind. He saw his hand ghosting in and out, turning into a cannon and back into flesh. He called out and found himself…snorting? He saw a version of the Fright Zone that was both familiar and unfamiliar – A Catra who wasn’t Catra (she was fully-human?), a version of Entrapta who was surprisingly tall and wore golden armor? A man with a skull for a face laughed at him. He felt himself imbued with sorcery and then felt it vanishing.   
  
A small, shining form lay before him amid the colliding realities. She, too, changed, from pink-hared to blonde, from translucent wings to solid white and back again.   
  
“Angella,” he breathed.   
  
He reached out for her. She was unconscious, but breathing. This would make things easier. He wouldn’t have to explain himself or try to gain her trust. `Hordak grabbed Bright Moon’s former queen and tugged on the extension cord. He found himself being pulled back swiftly with his cargo. He fell with a thump onto the laboratory floor, arms wrapped around the angelic being. Entrapta threw the switch and the portal spun, diminishing until it was gone.   
  
“Hordak!” Entrapta called rushing over to him.   
  
“She’s alive!” he said. “It is imperative that we get her to a bed… and call Queen Glimmer and King Micah.”   
  
“Are you alright, Hordak? That was risky! What was it like in there?!”   
  
His armor cracked and sizzled. He grit his teeth. “Better me than you. I will tell you all about it once our work with the queen is done.”   
  



	19. Warmth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month   
> Oct. 19- Surprise

**Warmth  
**  
  
Hordak shivered in one of the smaller rooms of the Crypto Castle. Not even his armor was of any help now, nor was his old Galactic Horde uniform (which he hated on principle), despite the fact that it could cover his entire body. A space-heater was going full-blast. The morning had started in drizzling rain, but now there were snow flecks outside the window. He pulled the drapes, hoping to trap what warmth could be had inside.   
  
His brothers didn’t’ have his problems with the cold. Many of them were working in it. Days like today made Hordak miss the Fright Zone. The ambient heat from the industry in the area combined with the basic climate meant that the weather there was always warm, if not what most Etherians called hot. Dryl was a mountain-kingdom and, as such, was prone to mountain-weather. The rocky outcrops caught the clouds, meaning that the area was frequently overcast and rainy – rather optimal, in Entrapta’s opinion, since she’d designed the tower of her castle to harness lightning for some of her experiments. In the colder months, there was snow. It had become wonderment to the other clones, but Hordak _detested_ the stuff.   
  
Entrapta had been trying to formulate a diet for him that would “put some fat on his bones,” but, as it was, he had nothing in the way of natural body-insulation and a hard time with body-temperature regulation. The Crypto Castle was cavernous and cold. Hordak wondered if he would have to spend the entire winter in this one small room!   
  
The doors to the room slid open and Hordak turned from where he was sitting on a bed, desperately rubbing his upper arms. A familiar figure bounded inside.   
  
“I’m baaaaaack!”   
  
“How was Mystacor?”   
  
“Great, just great! I not only fixed the problem they were having with their boiler-system, I improved it! It was weird working with so much pure magic. Oh, I got you a surprise!”   
  
“A surprise?” Hordak was curious, but he pinned his ears back to keep up appearances. “You know that I dislike surprises.”   
  
“Oh, you’ll like this one!”   
  
She pulled a giant box from one of her ponytails. It was fairly enormous, enough to warrant Hordak giving her a skewed look. Entrapta’s hair could carry a lot, but how did she hide this… oh, never mind!   
  
“Open it! Open it! Consider it a birthday present!”   
  
“You know that I do not have a birthday and the record of my decanting does not match with Etherian-time.”   
  
“But my birthday is coming up!”   
  
“You are to receive presents for that if I am remembering the custom correctly, not give them away.”   
  
“But I want to give you this!”   
  
Hordak skeptically took the top off of the box and pulled out its contents. Sweaters. There were sweaters.   
  
“Tada!”   
  
He held up a cream, green and white one with hearts in a row knit around the torso. There was another with what looked like little gray bats. Still another had a diamond-pattern. The one in the bottom was an entire dress, all black, all warm wool.   
  
“What is the meaning of this?”   
  
Entrapta grabbed the one with the hearts with the tails of her hair and promptly plunked it down on him. He wrestled, but she made quick work of getting him dressed like a fussy toddler.   
  
He clawed at the thing for a moment before pausing, a sudden realization hitting him. “It’s….warm…”   
  
“Exactly!”   
  
“I look ridiculous.”   
  
“I thought the plain black one might be more suiting, but, Hordak, it’s so cute!”   
  
Hordak’s ears dipped. He knew when he’d been licked.   
  
“I commissioned Castaspella to make them! I gave her your measurements, and viola! Surprise! Now you won’t have to be stuck inside all winter! I got one for myself, too! See?” She pulled a purple and white sweater from her hair emblazoned with miniature Emilies.   
  
“I may be stuck inside from embarrassment.”   
  
“You will not! You’re so cute!”   
  
A light blush found Hordak’s cheeks and ears. He was feeling warmer already. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The black sweater-dress was inspired by the artwork of Yunta on Tumblr and Twitter. They once drew a knit-dress-design for Hordak. I've always been too shy to try to say anything to them because English is not their primary language.


	20. You Wouldn't Understand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 20 - LUVD 
> 
> Adora had just rescued Entrapta from a squadron of clones. She gives the scientist a good scolding about running into danger and notices the purple crystal in her hand.

**You Wouldn’t Understand  
**  
  
Adora and Entrapta sat on a log in the latest Bright Moon base-encampment. Even from several feet apart, there was tension between them. They were both bruised and scuffed. Entrapta’s scalp hurt, but she said nothing about it. Her mask was firmly down and she was pawing a purple crystal in one hand.   
  
“Do you want to tell me why you ran right into that squadron of clones?”   
  
Entrapta gripped what was in her hand and turned away.   
  
“You could have been killed.”   
  
“You wouldn’t understand.”   
  
“They weren’t Hordak. You have to stop looking for him. If he’s one of them now…he’s not himself anymore. Or maybe he is, I don’t know! He’s an invader! This war, this hiding, all the fear! It’s what he’s brought upon the world!”   
  
“Different.”   
  
“Entrapta, this was his plan all along! You know it! You said it yourself that he told you that his plans for the portal were to summon the rest of his army to conquer Etheria!”   
  
“He was different. Not like the others.”   
  
“Entrapta, listen to yourself!”   
  
Entrapta slowly, reluctantly pulled her mask up, showing her tear-stained face. She was shaking, but all of her data on human communication indicated that showing facial expression was vital to making a point. She wanted to continue hiding, but Adora needed to know.   
  
“I’ve been observing the clones. They work and talk in unison. They have a similar-sounding voice, but they don’t talk like him. They move differently. It’s like… how Emily is different from standard drones. If you know she’s different, why can’t you accept that he’s different!” her fists were balled up now. “I need to find Hordak! All I want to do is talk to him! I know he remembers me, deep down inside!”   
  
“Entrapta…”   
  
“Do you take me for a child, Adora?”   
  
Adora was taken aback by the question, “N-no?”   
  
“You’re treating me like one. I bet you didn’t know that I knew. The other Princesses don’t really like me much, do they? Scorpia does, but everyone else… I’m really working hard on being a good friend, like Bow said, but none of you are like Hordak.”   
  
“Of course we aren’t like Hordak! We aren’t evil conquerors hell-bent on subjugating the world!”   
  
“That’s what you really think, isn’t it?”   
  
“Well, look around! We’re stuck in a magical safe-zone!”   
  
“We were thinking of… holding off opening the portal…indefinitely.”   
  
“What?”   
  
“I didn’t want him to have to go and I don’t think he really wanted to go. Catra showed up with you and your sword and we kind of felt like… we had to? Hordak likes appearing strong. He’s actually very sick. He broke his old armor protecting me from an explosion and I made the new set… because, well, without it, his body is falling apart. He suffers a defect and that’s why Horde Prime cast him out. He was sucked into a portal to this planet! He wanted to prove himself to Horde Prime because he doesn’t know anything else, but… we were thinking of… not. You do know that I was going to warn him that the portal was unstable when Catra knocked me out. Scorpia told you all of that. We could have been happy, just working together. We could have just had the Fright Zone and the Horde, or maybe even something else…but now…”   
  
“Entrapta, I’m not sure you’re making sense. He was just using you.”   
  
Entrapta slammed her mask back down, but looked Adora dead in the eye from behind the lenses. “What, like the Princess Alliance uses me? Nobody ever wants me around for anything but what I can fix and make – but Hordak, he was different. He’s brilliant, Adora! And we really liked…being friends. He listened to me.”   
  
“Only because you were improving his weapons!”   
  
“So? That’s all the Alliance ever wanted me for! And, no, Adora. He listened to me about everything! He showed me the stars and taught me about space! I talked with him on a level that I can’t talk with anyone else, not even Bow! He’s not…what you think he is, Adora. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to find him, okay?”   
  
She got up to leave and Adora stood in front of her, hands on her hips. “We aren’t going to let you go out there and get yourself killed messing with clones!”   
  
Entrapta turned her head. “If I show him it, he’ll remember. It’s the chip that powered his armor.”   
  
Entrapta presented the purple crystal that was in her hand.   
  
Adora gasped. “You know what it says, right?”   
  
“Well, yeah. I primarily chose it for the armor-build because it had just the right coding for what I needed it to do, but… what it says is a bonus.”   
  
“Loved.” Entrapta, don’t tell me that you…  
  
“He couldn’t’ read it, but… I was going to teach him to read First Ones just like he taught me about the stars.”   
  
“Entrapta… I don’t know if we can save him. I don’t even know if he’s worth saving…with the mess he’s made of Etheria.” Adora was looking at her very seriously. “If we meet him again, I may have to… you know.”   
  
“I know. But I’m gonna try to save him and you can’t stop me.”   
  
“I…I understand.”   
  
“I don’t think you do, but thanks, anyway.” 


	21. With or Without You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 21 - Giving In 
> 
> Entrapta was used to people leaving her - all of her life. Not this time. She was going to make sure that Hordak wouldn't leave her - because she wasn't going to leave him.

  
**With or Without You  
**  
  
“Hordak, no, no please! Remember me! I’m right here! I’m right here!”   
  
The ex-warlord slumped over, going still, his back and his legs half-absorbed already by the black vines. Entrapta was doing everything to swat them away, cutting them with her tools, grabbing them with her hair.   
  
“Whatever the signal is telling you, it’s not real!”   
  
Being sent to Beast Island had been a mistake. At the beginning of the journey, Entrapta was excited to scavenge out some of the old tech she’d seen when she’d had her exile here and to reunite with her carrier-robot friend. She had been immune to the signal before (until friends coming to her rescue had brought up doubts about her ability for social-achievement in her mind). She believed that this time, she would be perfectly safe, because she had her best friend, lab partner (and most luvd-one) with her. She’d believed that he would weather it well, too. She had no idea if Horde-clones even had the kind of brains that could be affected. They were partially-technology, and so she’d believed that Hordak would fare as well as a robot here.   
  
The Princesses wouldn’t have sent him to clean up this place as his “community service” sentence as a sentence of death, would they? They were so peaceful-natured. Most of their weapons and tactics were non-lethal… well, most of them. Bow might have been big on inventing net-arrows and goop arrows, but the regular soldiers in the Rebellion had used simple ones and more than a few Horde soldiers had fallen to them over the years. The technological-superiority hadn’t been a match, in many cases, to sheer numbers and the scrap of people defending their home-kingdoms.   
  
“Entrapta, please understand,” Hordak said slowly, ears and eyelids drooping, “There is no place for me in this world. I have done too much. This is the only kind of end for me. I was defective before Horde Prime and I am defective here. Go back to the skiff. Save yourself. This world needs your brilliant mind.”   
  
“No, Hordak! I’m not leaving you! Remember, you are Hordak! Defy this! Your imperfections are beautiful! You’re beautiful! And… I love you!”   
  
His red eyes widened at this and then he hung his head. “I was a fool,” he said. “To think that I could conquer this world for Prime… to think that I should. You showed me…something better, but it is too late. I have broken this world. It makes sense that it should break me.”   
  
Entrapta was tugging on his right hand with both of hers, even as she tried to grasp his body with her hair. The tendrils were creeping up and entangling into her locks. She could feel them gripping her legs. “I _need_ you, Hordak! None of the others… they don’t understand me at all! No one understands me – only you!”   
  
“I am so tired, Entrapta. I grow tired of the pain. This is right. Let me rest.”   
  
She reached up and cupped his cheek and gave him a tender kiss on the lips. “I am not leaving you.”   
  
The black vines of Beast Island’s corrupted jungle had reached up her torso now, cleaving her against him. Her hair was wrapped around him and in the vines as they both were becoming one with a wall of techno-organic matter dripping with black oil.   
  
“There isn’t any place in the world for me, either. I thought that maybe we could travel space together… You and me… in a ship we’d build unless we could steal Darla… but maybe… maybe people like us don’t belong anywhere, even in the infinity of the universe.”   
  
“Entrapta…” Hordak whispered, struggling for breath as a vine wended its way around his throat. Another had found its way inside his cervical-port and was probing, trying to bypass the seal. It was uncomfortably reminiscent of his Big Brother. “Please save yourself. I am the one being rightfully executed. You do not deserve this.”   
  
Entrapta hugged close to him, placing her hands into the gooey mess that was growing around him to hold him around the back. She laid her head on his chest. “You don’t deserve this either. Everyone leaves me. I am not letting you leave me – And I’m not leaving you.”   
  
Hordak felt Entrapta’s small body move with breath against him, warm amid the cold imprisonment of the island. He felt strangely at peace as his own breath began to slow and time began to fade. Entrapta, for her part, was feeling that same sense of peace. She did not know if Beast Island’s flora contained some kind of neurotoxin, if it was the buzz of the signal on the air itself, or just because she was holding her lab partner, content with her vow.   
  
____________   
  
  
The Best Friends Quad hadn’t gotten a communiqué from Entrapta in several weeks. She was supposed to call Bow with progress reports weekly and to assure them that Hordak wasn’t making any plans for escape and getting out of his sentence. There were two weeks in which he couldn’t get a signal because of an impromptu run to a neighboring planet – close enough for Darla to warp to, not close enough to keep a signal with Etheria. Then there was an issue with a clone-uprising in Sand Valley, a group calling themselves the Acolytes of Prime that had not taken well to rehabilitation-attempts and had created a separatist colony to “await Horde Prime’s return.” They’d been relatively harmless until they’d attacked the farmers and engineers working on an irrigation-project there. Bow had checked the Tracker Pad and had found no messages, but had found himself too busy to deal with it at the time and figured that Entrapta would keep both her and Hordak safe given her remarkable intelligence and resilience.   
  
By the fifth week with no contact, they’d grown genuinely worried. Bow tried to account for a possible lost signal, tinkering with his pad to get a boost.   
  
Finally, a rescue-mission was called. Adora, Catra, Bow and Glimmer piloted Darla to Beast Island. Once they hit the beach, they keyed into the short-range sensor that had been implanted in Hordak’s armor.   
  
“Worse than the stories, huh?” Catra said, looking around warily as they walked through thick jungle.   
  
“Just… don’t listen to the voices you’ll hear,” Adora cautioned. She sidled close to Glimmer. “Be ready to teleport us out on my say-so. Around the coast isn’t so bad. It’s the center of the island that’s a problem.”   
  
“Remember our power as friends,” Bow encouraged. “We took down the Galactic Horde together! There is nothing we can’t do.” He, too, stuck close to Glimmer, less as a quick-ticket out of there and more in a protective-fashion.   
  
“I can’t believe my Dad spent a decade in this dump!” Glimmer said, her gaze trailing to all of the wreck, ruin and ominous trees. “Good thing he was never a picky eater.”   
  
Bow made a face, remembering the first time he saw King Micah munch a bug.   
  
“It really doesn’t look like Entrapta and Hordak have cleaned up very much,” Adora said warily. “I hope they’re okay.”   
  
“Entrapta survived here for a year,” Catra reminded them, clutching her arms, looking guilty. “I can’t believe it – and I can’t believe that she forgave me.”   
  
“Entrapta can’t keep her mind on grudges when there’s science afoot,” Bow mused, “Not when there’s…”   
  
“Bow?”   
  
“The signal stops right here and… is that?”   
  
He was squinting his eyes, peering into the cavernous darkness caused by a grove of techno-organic trees. He slid the tracker-pad into his hip-pouch and took off in a dead-run. The others followed him.   
  
The four stood shock-still, staring at the limp locks of purple hair hanging off black branches. Adora startled as she caught the glimpse of a metal armor-bracer peeking out from behind dark brambles.   
  
“Oh, no, Bow gasped. He shook his head as Glimmer let out a squeak and Adora shed silent tears. Catra just stood still, eyes wide. “Nooo…”   
  
Before the group were a pair of skeletons – one with red teeth and red artificial eyes still stuck firmly in the skull’s eye-sockets, another trailing long and wispy purple hair from the scalp. Ragged clothes, dried skin and broken armor gave way to ribs entwined – a pair of ill-fated lovers that had given in – and were locked in an eternal embrace. 


	22. Love is Never Having to Say You're Sorry After Smashing Someone Off a Platform

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 22 - Favorite Activity 
> 
> Entrapta, Hordak and their post-war friends play Super Smash Bros.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a little while since I've played Smash, and my most up-to-date video game console is a Wii-U, so I do not have Ultimate. Hopefully, I am remembering character-moves correctly / some moves are still in place. (I think Sheik could throw kunai? Not sure on that). 
> 
> Anyway, worse innuendo has happened when a friend and I have played together and it's lead to fic in the Super Smash Bros. section.

**Love is Never Having to Say You’re Sorry After Smashing Someone Off a Platform  
**  
  
“Maybe we shouldn’t have set it to all hammers and Smash Balls?   
  
“Ah, ha, I love it when Pit gets the hammer! He moves so funny!”   
  
“Hurry up!”  
  
“We’ve still got a whole ten-minutes!”   
  
  
“Why did you set the time-limit so high?” 

  
“It’s more fun that way! Endurance-fight!”   
  
“Hmmm.”   
  
One of Entrapta’s favorite activities was video games – and it didn’t matter what era, new, retro, ones she designed herself… She found herself any given day when she was not working hard being the Dragonborn, the Lone Wanderer, the Hero of Hyrule, a plumber who smashed bricks with his head, a master tactician or… a horrible goose. She was whatever she wanted to be at any given time. She tended to opt for single-player games most of the time. She was introducing Hordak to the joy of gaming. He had a marked preference for strategy games, both turn-based and real-time, and civilization-sims.   
  
Today, however, the two of them had guests over and a multiplayer fighting-game was just what the Perfuma ordered for relaxation. Well… maybe not relaxation, per-se, as they were all on the edges of their seats on the couch and chairs, furiously pounding controllers, with lots of yelling, laughter and occasional insults flung.   
  
Super Smash Bros. on 8-player mode. It was amazing chaos. There were actually nine of them in the room. The latest round was for the honor of playing the champion in a 2-player head-to-head, the prize being snacks. Scorpia, to everyone’s surprise was that champion. She’d started out the afternoon barely able to hold a controller and afterward quickly found that the nubs on her claws fit the buttons perfectly, giving her a swiftness at button-mashing and a dexterity at specific combo-moves that was unmatched.   
  
Everyone in the room was pretty comfortable with experimenting with the vast cast of characters, but mains had easily emerged and they all seemed to fit individuals’ personalities.   
  
Bow played Pit, a winged master-archer with a bow as a primary weapon (although it split into twin-swords, which he thought was neat). Catra was the agile ninja-warrior, Sheik; Adora was a mighty princess brandishing a magical-sword with fierce critical hits – Lucina. Glimmer was another princess – Zelda, and was spamming the Farore’s Wind move to teleport everywhere around the expanded Battlefield stage. Kadroh (or Wrong Hordak as a few people were still accidentally calling him) chose Princess Peach and seemed to mostly like her cheeky taunts. Perfuma was the Piranha Plant.   
  
Hordak had a few main characters that he liked, all the strong power-hitters. His main, which surprised no one, was Samus. It was the arm-cannon that he liked – the beautiful, powerful arm-cannon.   
  
Entrapta surprised everyone by not picking a robot-character. She was currently floating above the stage as Kirby.   
  
“Too bad Midna’s just an assist-trophy,” Bow said, lobbing a light-arrow into Kirby’s hind-end as he spoke. “I could see you wielding her hair.”   
  
“Aaaaah!” Adora screamed in unison with her character as Hordak charged a power-blast at her and sent Lucina right off the stage in an enormous beam of light.   
  
“Heh, heh, heh.”   
  
“You’re not playing Ganondorf right now. You don’t get to ‘Heh, heh, heh!”   
  
“Thus the mighty She-Ra falls!”   
  
Entrapta floated Kirby away from a hail of kunai flung by Catra’s Sheik. She found herself directly behind Samus and presented with a golden opportunity. She did an inhale attack. Kirby sucked Samus right in and popped her out, sporting a helmet and a cannon.   
  
Hordak roared. “How dare you eat me?!”   
  
Catra suddenly paused. She burst out laughing.   
  
“What is so funny, Sister Catra?” Kadroh asked.   
  
Adora started biting her lip, trying to keep the awkward giggles from coming out. _Dammit, Catra…_   
  
Perfuma looked uncomfortable.   
  
Glimmer groaned.   
  
“What?” Scorpia asked, “What?”   
  
Bow was looking at the floor, knocking the heels of his boots together, heat in his cheeks.   
  
Entrapta, for her part, was oblivious, as was Hordak. They were both concentrated on the game and had seemed to be targeting each other exclusively now.   
  
“You shall taste my giant cannon!” Hordak shouted.   
  
“Not if you taste mine, first!”   
  
“Dear moons, are they doing this on purpose or are they really that oblivious?” Catra guffawed.   
  
“I do not believe I understand the source for laughter,” Kadroh re-iterated.   
  
“What are you fools talking about?” Hordak grumbled.   
  
“STOP SAYING THINGS!” Bow whined.   
  
“What?” Entrapta asked, turning her head. “What? What did we say?”   
  
Everyone besides Entrapta and Hordak, who were in full gamer-mode, was either confused, embarrassed or acting like they were eleven years old.   
  
“Hmm,” Entrapta shrugged as she maneuvered her Kirby behind Hordak’s Samus again. “Looks like I’m gonna eat you again!”   
  
Catra laughed so hard she fell off the couch.   
  
Bow was squirming. “STOP!” 


	23. The Cult of the Dragon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 23 - Fantasy AU 
> 
> A sorceress finds a pair of brothers and a child in the forest. They are on the run from a vicious cult, but even more is afoot! One of these men is tied to the destiny of a dragon and to the very fate of the world!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly out of character, given the different world-setting. I made Hordak more innocent and Entrapta slightly more evil. Obvious inspiration from certain video games and a shout-out to a funny serial-escalation joke I saw once on tumblr. 
> 
> Character death and a mention of past Shadowdak in this chapter. (Not normally something I ship, it just served the plot).

**The Cult of the Dragon  
**  
  
The world was under the rule of dragons.   
  
The people of the continent of Etheria lived in awe, fear and worship of a pair of cosmic Overdragons, which were at odds with each other. The royal family upon the throne in the central kingdom of Bright Moon and the common people there generally worshiped Mara, the Dragon of Golden Light and feared her counterpart, Primus, the Dragon of White Light, also known to Etherians as the World-Eater. Many prophecies bespoke these dragons’ return to the flesh, the ages of prosperity and/or ruin they would bring when they did so, and of mortals chosen to do their respective biddings or to bring about their downfall.  
  
People in the neighboring continent, the Fright Zone, underneath the rule of the Horde Empire, had a diametrically-opposed theology to that of Bright Moon, their culture steeped in the worship of Primus, whom they thought of as the true divine-dragon.   
  
The people of the two landmasses were at perpetual war with each other, not that the high wizardess, Es’tra Vesselak of the principality of Dryl, had ever cared much about it. She was a reclusive scholar-princess in a barren border-kingdom to Etheria and although she knew that various gods were a part of known physical reality and that there was ample evidence for the existence of the dragons (which were not fully a part of physical reality in this age) she did not concern herself much with them. She was far more interested in trying to find the “reality behind reality,” in the study of an ancient technologically-advanced civilization called The First Ones, and in perfecting her own steam-based automata and magic.   
  
A day spent in the twisted woods outside of her castle changed her quiet, non-involved life forever.   
  
Es’tra picked herbs with her round pet-automata, Emily for the use of her alchemy, her wizard’s robes and long hair trailing on the ground. She heard the rustle of leaves and keyed up an offensive spell against any potential assassin or thief. She jumped back and unleashed a jet of electricity as a chubby child-like being with bat-wings flew and screeched at her. The creature dodged and circled her. It stood at her feet and chattered indignantly. It seemed to be trying to draw her attention.   
  
“Imp! Imperious!, come back!” came a call from the forest. “Brother Hordak, he’s gotten ahead of us!”   
  
“There is someone ahead of us. It might be Bishop Yudi. Let me set you down…I’ll defend us.”   
  
“If Yudi has caught up to us, it may be the end!”   
  
Es’tra kept her magically-charged hand up, crackling with electricity. She also threw up her hair, magically-imbued with life. The little imp-creature slinked behind the golden and geared form of Emily. A figure in a black robe stood in the dappled light of the forest in the clearing ahead. His white face and red eyes were stark, as was the blood on his cheek. Something glistened on his robe, Es’tra discerning it as more blood.   
  
She recognized this kind of being – white faced and bat-eared. Some rumored them to be a type of vampire. Still others classed them as elves. The man staring at her was a High Hordesman. Not everyone in the Horde Empire – not even most people were of the High Horde, but all of the High Hordesmen were this type of elf. Unlike other elves, they were not particularly compatible with magic and were said to be more interested in technology. Es’tra had wanted to study their tech for a long time – from a safe distance. They were notoriously fierce and fiercely religious. The High Horde was known as the Cult of the Dragon, Primus.   
  
“Stay back!” Es’tra warned. “I am the high wizardess Es’tra, also known as Entrapta, keeper of Dryl! I am perfectly capable of splitting your atoms and am in need of experimental subjects!”   
  
“Stand down,” the Hordesman said in a gravelly voice. “I am capable in a fight, but have no wish to hurt you. My brother, my child and I only wish to pass through. Ugghhh…”   
  
The Hordesman suddenly collapsed. Es’tra ran to him in concern, hair up and at the ready should this be a trick and should he make any wrong moves.   
  
“Please don’t hurt my brother!” called a voice. “We have been on the run for three days, no rest, no food, and my brother is deathly ill.”   
  
Es’tra turned to the voice to see a white-haired, green-eyed young man in bloodstained white robes seated in a lean against a boulder. He was gravely injured – an arrow protruding from his left side.   
  
“What happened to the two of you?” the sorceress asked.   
  
The imp-child chattered behind her, then opened his mouth, speaking with the gravelly voice of the man who was moaning on the ground. “You defied the will of Primus? What were you thinking?” And then the Imp spoke in the voice of the other one, “They are going to have you sacrificed, brother! I cannot let that happen.” Then the first voice again; “Of what do you speak? We are all the same, all one before Primus!” And the other’s again, “Not you, you are different. So many of us… are different. We learned what happened at the battle of Krytis. Primus is not all-powerful, nor is he the benevolent order-bringer! He is a false ruler and we must rise up against him!” And again, “It is suicide, Kadroh!” “So is remaining, Hordak, especially for you. Maybe we can leave, cross the boarder into Etheria.” “Madness.”   
  
Es’tra wondered at the strange, mimicking nature of the child’s words. Was he under a spell? Was he some kind of magical-construct? Answering those questions could wait. There were far more pressing things afoot.   
  
“So, you’re on the run?”   
  
“Yes,” the green-eyed one said. “My twin brother, Hordak, was slated to be sacrificed as a vessel to Primus so that the dragon can make a full return to the mortal-world. His body might suffer, but his blood is sufficient…and he was chosen…”   
  
Hordak turned over as Es’tra helped him up with her hair. “If Primus is brought back to our world, he will destroy it utterly. He will devour all that is in his path. We learned the truth and left the cult. We are…being pursued. Kadroh was injured protecting my son and me from our High Bishop. All we ask is that you allow us to pass through your lands. I assure you that our order is only interested in pursuing us right now. No harm will come to you.”   
  
“Oh, no, I’d be a bad princess if let wounded people just die in my land! Well, at least if you aren’t some obnoxious adventurers trying to take my stuff. Hold on.”   
  
Es’tra put two fingers in her mouth and sharply whistled. A very large automaton trundled to her and opened its massive organic mouth.   
  
“What is that?” Hordak asked, shaking his dark-haired head and trying to get his bearings.   
  
“Big Bertha!” Es’tra proudly proclaimed. I made her from First Ones Technology and a spare horse!   
  
“I have never seen a horse like that,” Kadroh said.   
  
“Alright, let me load you up. You’re coming to my castle this afternoon for tea!”   
  
_______________________

  
“I designed this castle as a labyrinth,” Es’tra said, “So follow me closely.”   
  
She was cradling Kadroh in her hair while Hordak, who was on his feet, shakily walked behind her.   
  
“It was funny how it started. At first, this place was just a little stone hut, but some adventurer broke in and stole my goat cheese-wheel. I shouted at him ‘Come back with my cheese-wheel, you fink!’ and he never did. So, I built a few simple snares around my cheese-basement. Then other guys broke in and got some of my family’s old treasures. Some took my tiny food – I need that to live, you know! I swear, every ‘adventurer’ that thinks they’re a hero thinks they’re entitled to random people’s stuff! Things got really serious when someone took one of my invention blueprints, so when building up the castle with my automata-friends, I laid traps _everywhere_. Cool traps, too…ones that will hang you upside-down, others with swinging blades that’ll cut your legs right off if you don’t dodge! Spike-walls! Entryways where you have to solve a puzzle correctly before pulling a lever to access the next room, but if you get the puzzle wrong, you’ll be shot full of poison darts! Even I forget where some of them are sometimes!”   
  
“Are you certain that you are leading us to safety?” Hordak questioned.   
  
“Oh, of course, silly. We’ll be in my laboratory and the area with the bedrooms soon enough.”   
  
“So, you have been nicknamed Entrapta.”   
  
“Yep. Because of all the traps. No one comes to my castle anymore – Unless I invite them. No more dumb adventurers nicking my cheese-wheels! And I can do my experiments in peace! Even the ones that explode! You can go ahead and call me Entrapta if you want.”   
  
Somehow, Hordak was not feeling confident. “How is my brother?”   
  
“Not well,” Entrapta said. “The arrow’s pretty deep. I’ll have to be careful in extracting it. He’s lost consciousness.”   
  
____________________________  
  
Hordak awoke with a snort, the morning rain pounding on the window beside his bed. He’d been wrapped in a plush blue blanket and ensconced in a grand four-poster bed with parted drapes. He’d never slept in a royal bed before. The barracks of the Cult of Primus were quite stark.   
  
He rose and found that he’d been dressed in what appeared to be some kind of light armor with a magical node in the collar. His body felt better than it had in years. Imp was curled up beside him. He was careful not to disturb the child. He wandered carefully across the hall to another bedroom. Entrapta had assured him that this entire wing of her castle was free of her ridiculous security-devices.  
  
He found the sorceress seated beside another fancy bed. In it lay his brother, whose hand she was holding. She turned around when she heard him enter the room.   
  
“Hordak,” she said softly.   
  
“Kadroh?”   
  
“I am so sorry, Hordak. I did my best. Surgery, tinctures… I even tried a bit of necromancy, but…it was no good. He’s gone.”   
  
Hordak shivered and went to the bed. He took his brother’s cold hand from her grasp. “No….please…”   
  
He stroked Kadroh’s hair and his still face. He looked peaceful, at least. Hordak kneeled before the bed and raised his chin skyward. He opened his mouth and pumped his throat as if singing a dirge. All Entrapta heard was a few soft chirps.   
  
“Fascinating,” Entrapta said.   
  
Hordak caught his breath and addressed her.   
  
“Your people can sing in a voice beyond the audible range of humans.”   
  
Hordak nodded gently. “My bereavement aside… and Imp’s – he adores his uncle – this does not bode well. Kadroh was the leader of the internal rebellion among the cult. We…they…will be lost without him.”   
  
“I’m sorry.”   
  
Hordak blinked back tears. “You have my gratitude for trying to help him.” He looked away from the bed, desperate not to look at his brother’s face. “Did you construct this armor that I am wearing?”   
  
“Yep! I examined you after you passed out again and thought you needed something to compensate for your organic body. You’re my finest experiment yet!”  
  
“It is…very technologically-sound.”   
  
“You may stay here for as long as you like.”   
  
_________________________  
  
  
The ensuing months spent in hiding in Dryl’s Crypto Castle were filled in an exchange of culture. Hordak had tales of life in the Fright Zone while Entrapta had tales of life in Etheria and on its edges. Entrapta spoke at length of the local legends and of how the latest chosen warrior of Mara – the “She-Ra” had made an appearance and was reportedly staying in Bright Moon.   
  
“So, when I met you, I was just shoring up my traps in case she came around. The last thing I need is some ultimate adventurer absconding with Bertha or with Emily, or any of my other inventions or research.”   
  
“Or your cheese-wheels.”   
  
“Those, too.”   
  
“Indeed.”   
  
“So…where you come from… nothing of your life is your own?”   
  
“Everything is in service to the dragon. It is why some of my brothers formed a separatist movement…under Kadroh.” His head hung - his grief fresh and possibly eternal. “I do not believe that I can…inspire others as much as he did. He inspired me to flee – for my child’s sake more than anything. If I had been sacrificed, Imp wouldn’t have a parent.”   
  
“No mother?”   
  
“A shadow-weaving sorceress that served the cult that ultimately betrayed me and left me with him. It is in the past. I should probably move elsewhere. Your ingenious traps aside, my presence puts you, your castle and your people in danger.”   
  
“Maybe we should call upon the She-Ra, then. One of her jobs is to slay evil dragons!”   
  
“Perhaps…but only those with a connection to Primus can slay him for good. He will resurrect without cease as long as there are vessels to be sacrificed. I was born the one of my generation, but after me, others will come – stronger vessels at that. Imp, being mine, is a possible vessel. Kadroh had been marked as a possibility, too.”   
  
“We should go to Bright Moon, then, join their army, join with the She-Ra! You have so much inside-information! You will be valuable to them!”   
  
“Perhaps, if they will have me. My people are traditionally enemies to Etheria.”   
  
“Oh, pish! If they won’t accept your help, then I’ll just stop building weapons for them! I never cared much about the wars personally and never officially joined sides, but I am under contract with the Bright Moon military! They loooove my automata! I’ve made enough coin from them to build my castle, declare myself princess and then-some!”   
  
Hordak raised an eyebrow. “Really?”   
  
“Uh-huh!” Entrapta assured him. She smiled. “Let’s avenge your poor brother!” 


	24. Songs of the Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 24 - Celebration 
> 
> Entrapta and Hordak have invited Adora and Catra to one of the many annual celebrations of the Fall of Horde Prime - a party put on by the spacebats living in Dryl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This uses several borrowed headcanons from around the fandom. 
> 
> First - musical headcanons borrowed from entrapdaknation of tumblr.  
> Second - species-name and reproductive headcanons borrowed from Jenny_Islander from their worldbuilding snippets posted as inspiration here on Ao3 in their "Flowers From Ashes" set: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25269619/chapters/61262806#workskin  
> Third - like everyone, their sibling and their dog in the Entrapdak and general Hordish-fandom, I've borrowed Hordak's future-fashion from extra-funsies artwork posted by She-Ra character-designer, Rae Geiger. (Seriously, though, it takes some real talent to make a weird mechanical vampire-swamp monster from my 80s childhood into a sexy emo-boy and looking so damn good. Congrats)!

**Songs of the Fall  
**  
  
Catra sidled close to Adora, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. She knew that she had no right to be, but old traumas ran deep. Adora kept an arm around her to assure her, indicating that she understood.   
  
“I know they’re different now,” Catra whispered, “but I still have nightmares about the ship, about being watched everywhere I went.”   
  
“Don’t worry,” Adora told her with a smile. “Horde Prime is gone. They’re free now, too, and most of them aren’t even paying attention to us.”   
  
Melog trailed behind them, in a low-slung stance, sniffing and looking around warily. The presence of so many emissaries of The One Who Destroys made them uneasy. Catra’s fear wasn’t helping.   
  
“It’s been four years,” Adora said.   
  
“I know… sentences served, reformation and rehab and all that, but I still don’t know if we should have come.”   
  
The pair (and Catra’s therapy-pet) had been invited to a celebration of the Fall of Horde Prime. These parties happened all over Etheria (and, in fact, all over many other worlds). They had spent the first year after the Fall still cleaning up (Catra had served a pretty grueling work-sentence in Sailineas along with Hordak in lieu of execution or lifelong imprisonment) while Adora took care of Bright Moon matters. Last year was spent celebrating in space, in transit on one of their magic-restoration missions. The year after that was spent at Bright Moon’s enormous party. This year, enough curiosity overtook them to see what the former members of the Galactic Horde were doing with their newfound culture on Etheria. Entrapta insisted to them that old databases and a resurgence of collective repressed hive mind memories had given the Horde-clones a culture – leftover tidbits from their lost home-planet – to reclaim in a new home. Either way, they were making a fresh start and Adora, at least, was interested in seeing a bit of it.   
  
“Hello!”   
  
Catra nearly jumped out of her skin as a tall man with sparkling blue and pink hair and a loud red shirt decked in flowers seemingly came out of nowhere.   
  
“Welcome Lady Adora and Lady Catra! So glad you could make it! Would you like some punch? I bet you would like some punch. Let me guide you to the punch-bowl!”   
  
Melog let out a mrrowl.   
  
“Oh, Melog! I haven’t seen you in so long! You really shouldn’t be strangers! Emily has missed you, too!”   
  
Catra blinked. “Wrong Hordak?”   
  
“Wrong Hordak” blinked. “No, it’s Kadroh now. I changed my name. Don’t you remember?”   
  
“Yeah, yeah, right,” Catra said awkwardly. “Long time, no see.”  
  
“Entrapta is here, right?” Adora asked.   
  
“Oh, right this way!”   
  
Catra, Adora and Melog allowed Kadroh to lead them. They wended past Etherians and spacebats alike and even a few robots, noting the fairy lights strung up between trees and decorative banners on the cliff-sides. Some were decked in the Crest of Dryl. A few more humorous ones bore Horde Prime’s four-eyed face with a giant red “No!” strike over it.   
  
They were in the Dryl Valley (the Crypto Castle being a mere shadow far above them) in a spacious clearing dappled with a few un-cleared trees here and there. Long, fancy tables were set up, filled with trays of small foodstuffs, carafes and goblets. People were playing music and Adora smiled at spacebats that were seated upon chairs and logs, plucking at and blowing into musical instruments that looked to be too large for most Etherians to handle without assistance, but that they used easily. One Horde-clone scratched at what appeared to be a sheet of ridged metal framed in wood with his long claws, producing distinct and rather pleasant scritch-scritch sounds.   
  
The group stopped in their tracks as Entrapta bounded into their collective personal space. “Oh, so glad you could make it!” she chimed. “Hordak and I have been waiting for you! He thought you’d stiff the invitation! Well, you showed him!”   
  
“Entrapta…shouldn’t you be dressed up for this?” Catra asked, noting that the scientist had dressed much as she had done for Princess Prom a few years ago – that is, in her usual oil-stained work-clothes and steel-toed boots.   
  
“Nope, didn’t want to!”   
  
“Well, Hordak is fancy.”   
  
“Former Force Captain.”   
  
Hordak was seated in a wheelchair. He had a cane across his knees, indicating that the chair was not his sole means of conveyance, but also signaling that he needed help on his feet if he rose from it. He was wearing a dark purple dress with light armor on the cuffs and boots and around his sides. He had grown his hair out long and had frosted it purple on tips, slightly matching Entrapta while retaining deep blue at the roots. Adora and Catra were taken aback at once. They had to admit, he looked rather sexy.   
  
Maybe because he was accentuating his feminine attributes this day.   
  
“Um…thank you, Lord…Sir?” Adora asked.   
  
“No need for formalities, Adora,” he answered. “I am no longer a Lord. I may be technically a Prince-Consort of Dryl, but all that means” (he smiled wickedly), “Is that I am Entrapta’s official boy-toy.”   
  
Catra stuck out her tongue as Hordak leaned up his face to receive a peck on the lips from Entrapta.   
  
“LAB PARTNER!” Entrapta corrected. “But, it is true that he’s the most fun toy I’ve got around here!”   
  
Catra’s ears flattened. “Enough, enough already! Not even Bow and Glimmer are this kissy in public!”   
  
“So… Spacebat party, eh?” Adora said awkwardly.   
  
“Keeron,” Entrapta corrected. “They don’t mind being called spacebats, but we found their proper name in Horde Prime’s old databases. “They also accept ‘Hordish,’ ‘The Lost,’ ‘The Last’ and ‘The Brethren,’ although that’s not entirely accurate.”   
  
A long, gray-blond-haired Horde-clone walked past them on the way to one of the snack tables. They were pulling a young child in tow – one that had a cross of Horde-clone attributes and the long floppy round ears and horn-buds of a satyr. The adult clone was sporting a large, protruding belly indicative of late pregnancy.   
  
“I… don’t remember seeing any women among your kind before…” Catra said. “How?”   
  
Hordak was grinning. They were about to get bombarded with a science-lecture by Entrapta.   
  
“Well, you see,” she said, bouncing in her hair, “The Keerons don’t actually have any set reproductive-roles like Etherians know! They have organs and cells that are dormant until they need them! And you know how gender is a construct? Well, for them, they sort of don’t have a gender because the only have one gender and they’re starting to choose their genders! They were only ‘all male’ under Horde Prime because that’s the way he liked it and forced them to be, but in reality they have multifaceted reproductive capabilities!”   
  
“I thought you just…were clones?” Catra asked.   
  
“Indeed,” Hordak rumbled.   
  
“Well, yes,” Entrapta explained. “For multiple generations, Horde Prime just produced them from a single genetic-stock, with modifications for his chosen vessels and they were all sterile… at first. But now… through a combination of atavistic traits re-emerging without his influence and the ambient magic of Etheria, they’re going back to the way they’re meant to be! And that means some of them are having children – impregnating, getting pregnant... whichever role they wish to take! And it’s great, because they’re really lacking in genetic-diversity, like, completely-lacking, and interbreeding with others is the only path they have to saving anything from their species!”   
  
“Horde Prime… took a lot from you…” Adora sighed, regarding Hordak.   
  
“And I threw him down a shaft because he tried to take Entrapta from me. And you obliterated him because he took a lot from everyone.”   
  
Catra’s ears suddenly flatted. “WHAT IS that horrible screeching?”   
  
“Screeching?” Entrapta asked,” I don’t hear any screeching.”   
  
“Yeah, I don’t hear anything, either,” Adora said, whipping her head around.   
  
On the grassy ground behind them was a clone with a scarred face and eyeglasses tilting his head skyward in some kind of silent cry. Another clone sat on a stump behind him strumming one of those large, awkward guitar-like instruments that the Etherians had seen around that seemed to be made precisely for beings of their size and with their talons. Adora recognized the guitarist as a fellow she met before – red-eyed, blue-gray hair - she had mistaken him for Hordak when she’d first run into him.   
  
“You can’t hear that?” Catra complained. “His singing! It’s weird! It’s…haunting! It’s making my bones ache!”   
  
“Ah…” Hordak said, “It is outside of Adora and Entrapta’s range of hearing. He is singing a song in our old language. He is mourning the fallen of our people, and the general fallen of many worlds, taken by eons of war.”   
  
“Can you make him stop?”   
  
“Why would I make him stop?”   
  
The clone rose and started singing in a lower pitch, in a range that the humans present could hear, although they did not understand the words. Then the Keeron started dancing and clapping his hands.   
  
“And now, he is celebrating those of us who remain alive, and singing of new horizons. He is beckoning the rest of us to join in.”   
  
The clone hopped and danced in a circle, clapping, and holding out his hands to the audience at intervals. Other spacebats started clapping and then joined in for the dance. Soon, there was a swirling circle of Keerons and Etherians of various kinds, all in lively foot-work. Even Kadroh joined in, dancing with Emily at his side. Melog ran to their side and hopped up on their hind legs, letting Kadroh take them by the paws.   
  
“Go on and join in!” Entrapta encouraged Catra and Adora.   
  
“Um…how about you two first?” Adora suggested.   
  
“We danced earlier,” Hordak explained. “Even with my armor, it took a great deal out of me. This is why I am in the chair. Entrapta…can be difficult to keep up with.”   
  
Entrapta gave him a cheeky grin.   
  
  



	25. Satellite of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 25 - Watching Movies 
> 
> For his many war-crimes, the Princesses give Hordak an unusual sentence: He is to be incarcerated on a satellite and forced to watch bad movies. Entrapta hijacks Darla to join him. Together, they endure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly out of character for the Princesses (they’re a little rougher than canon here) - all for Rule of Funny. 
> 
> “AP” means “After Prime.”

**Satellite of Love**  
  
 _  
In the not too distant future…  
Next Sunday AP…   
There was a conqueror named Hordak, pretty different from you or me…  
He reigned from the Fright Zone and made a mess…  
If you’ve seen She-Ra you know the rest…  
He made war on Etheria and wrecked the place  
The Princesses didn’t like him so they shot him into space!   
  
“We’ll send him cheesy movies! The worst we can find!  
La-la-la!  
The Fright Zone sure had a bunch! We can monitor his mind!”  
Now keep in mind Hordak can’t control when the movies begin or end…  
Because Entrapta used those special parts to upgrade their robot-friends!   
  
Robot Roll-Call!   
Emily!   
Scorpia-bot!  
Arm-Cannon!  
Immmmmp!  
  
If you’re wondering how they eat and breathe and other science facts…  
La-la-la!  
Remember all the crazy magic, you should really just relax…  
  
For Etherian Science Theater 3000!_   
  
  
“An unconventional punishment, to say the least,” Hordak grumbled.   
  
“Come on! We have to get to the other side of the ship before they cut off the life-support in this side!”   
  
“Strange how they forgot that I can sustain myself without oxygen for limited periods.”   
  
“But you don’t like the cold! Come on, it’s not so bad! I LIKE being a part of a science experiment!”   
  
“Even as a test-subject!”   
  
“Especially as a test-subject!”   
  
“They are attempting to break my mind, Entrapta.”   
  
“And they won’t, because you’re tough! We’ll show them!”   
  
Hordak smiled and let Entrapta lead the way to the theater-bay. The two were stuck aboard an old Horde-ship that wasn’t unlike Hordak’s old cruiser, save that it had been modified by some people from a different world – Eternia, was it? – to serve as a satellite to Etheria and as a prison-facility for one special prisoner. Entrapta, for her part, had been absolved of all of her crimes with the Horde, but chose to be imprisoned with Hordak to keep him company. In fact, she’d hijacked Darla to dock with the station, despite the Princess Alliance’s wishes. She’d brought along Emily and Imp and had been building new friends ever since.   
  
The sentence for Hordak was a strange one. Some of the ex-members of the Horde remembered old propaganda-movies that the Horde used to show them. Other bad movies were found throughout Etheria. Someone suggested sentencing Hordak to watch these terrible movies every week for at least a year. Bow and Glimmer worked the command-center that beamed these movies to Hordak’s satellite. Adora told him – “See what Shadow Weaver made us watch when we were kids? Now you get a taste of it!”   
  
Hordak, Entrapta, Imp, Emily and a robot that Entrapta had built in the likeness of Scorpia sat down in the front row of a giant screen. Today, they were being treated to a film going by the title _Attack of the 50-Foot Princess_.   
  
“Ooh, I’ve seen this one before!” Entrapta gushed.   
  
“You have?” Hordak asked.   
  
“Kyle once took me on a date and snuck me into the Fright Zone’s theater.”   
  
Hordak narrowed his eyes and suppressed a growl. “One of the cadets took you on a date?”   
  
“Yep! He was super-nice. Oh, don’t worry, Hordikins! He was waaaaay too young for me!”   
  
“And I am not? I am a rather young clone.”   
  
“For a clone, not for an Etherian. Between the two things you even out to around my age!”   
  
“I want to know who created this film. The special-effects leave much to be desired.”   
  
“Shadow Weaver!” Imp intoned in Hordak’s voice, “Shadow Weaver!”   
  
“I would think that she would have put more of her sorcery skills into it. I can tell that Bright Moon Palace is made of card-stock.”   
  
Emily beeped in agreement. She, too, was unimpressed.   
  
“The science is all wrong, too!” Entrapta pointed out. “I was talking to Kyle about it. This totally violates the Square-Cube law! The giant Princess should collapse in on herself and her weight would crush her lungs like a beached whale! If the transformation didn’t break her bones first!”   
  
“I thought that the magic of Etheria would cancel such concerns out,” Hordak said, munching on some popcorn. He picked a fang with the tip of a talon to dislodge an errant flake of kernel. “By your own testimony, you witnessed She-Ra breathe in space.”   
  
“Yeah, yeah, but that’s different!” Entrapta said with a wave of a hair-tail. “Magic is one thing, but the narrative of this movie was that the Titan-Princess was zapped with a physics-distorting ray-gun! And they keep using the term ‘quantum physics,’ which does NOT work like that! And the radiation involved… oh, that would just make someone very sick and ultimately kill them!”   
  
“I really should have paid more attention to our propaganda department. I fail to see how this inspired any of my troops.”   
  
“They probably got a good laugh out of it!”   
  
“An unintended laugh.”   
  
“Maybe, but try to have fun, okay? The Princesses could have given you a much worse sentence.”   
  
Entrapta leaned her head on Hordak’s shoulder. He let out a soft laugh. Their hands met in a buttery embrace in the popcorn-tub as the 50-Foot Princess rampaged over the model-kingdoms of Etheria.   
  
Hordak aimed his arm-cannon and blew a hole in the screen. “Looks like the movie is over.”   
  
To his consternation, a fleet of nanobots quickly rebuilt the screen.   
  
This happened every week. At least Entrapta had chosen to suffer with him, and was, for her part, not suffering. She laughed, having the time of her life.   
  
  



	26. Villains of the Week

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 26 - Villains 
> 
> A very loose sequel to the eigth story of this collection, "Benefits of Failure." 
> 
> They did this every week...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very silly. Inspired by half-remembered bits of the original 80's series and Saturday Morning / Weekday Afternoon cartoons in general.

**Villains of the Week  
**  
  
Entrapta and Hordak got up bright and early to eat their breakfast of fruity, colorful cereal (served in tiny bowls), like they did every Saturday morning (although this was Friday afternoon)! After that, Hordak polished his armor, got it on and dressed in his dark, flowing cape. Entrapta got on her boots and gloves, got little Imp fed and got their latest invention fueled up.   
  
They deployed from the coast of the mainland after unloading the carrier. Soon they were on the way to Bright Moon, rolling at a steady pace in their giant tank. Entrapta had designed it to have an image of Hordak’s grinning, red-fanged face on it, “to induce maximum terror,” she said. Hordak, for his part, thought it was ridiculous, but let her have her fun. He had to admit that it felt rather enlivening to indulge in ego.   
  
Hordak and Entrapta had effectively made Beast Island into their own kingdom. Upon figuring out the exile there to “clean the place up” was effectively an execution sentence, they chose to clean it up for themselves. They retro-fitted all of the First Ones technology there to suit their purposes. They had built a new Crypto Castle. They got Imp and Emily back, as well as all of Entrapta’s robots and many of Hordak’s brothers.   
  
Since the Princesses of Etheria could not be relied upon, Hordak chose to return to his old conquering ways – only this time, he did not seek to conquest for Horde Prime, but for himself and for his Mad Scientist Queen. They made plans. They built an android army.   
  
Entrapta casually drove the tank with her hair while Hordak sat ensconced on a throne within it. Imp flitted around.   
  
“Would you like to drive, Imp?”   
  
Imp squealed an affirmative and Entrapta let him have a pull at the controls.   
  
“We’ll be within striking-range of Bright Moon Palace in no time!” Entrapta announced. “And then we’ll bombard the Moonstone, thus undoing the barrier around the castle! It’ll weaken Queen Glimmer and the kingdom will be ours for the taking!”   
  
“Good, good,” Hordak said, stroking his chin.   
  
Emily bounced beside her and beeped. She was raring to get in on some action, too.   
  
A golden glow interrupted the evil laughter within the Trapper Tank. Suddenly, the New Horde’s marching androids and drones were flung high into the air! Whirlwinds, ice, lightning, water and bursts of light bombarded the mechanized army!   
  
“Fire, Entrapta!” Hordak ordered.   
  
Entrapta started firing the tank’s cannon straight for the distant Moonstone and was landing direct hits.   
  
“Here, just keep pressing this button!” Entrapta said. “I’m gonna go out and see what’s going on!”   
  
“Entrapta, wait!”   
  
She had already popped the hatch on the top of the tank and was out, standing atop it, her hair formed into fists.   
  
An arrow whizzed by her head and deployed into a net that caught only air behind her.   
  
“Surrender, Entrapta! It doesn’t’ have to be this way!”   
  
Bow stood tall, flanked by Glimmer, She-Ra and the other Princesses.   
  
“Of course it does!” she replied. “You sent Hordak and me to a death-island! We made it into the new Fright Zone and soon we’ll annex everything else! Isn’t it exciting? You get to be my new test-subjects!”   
  
A whirlwind knocked her off her feet. Before she slid off the body of the tank, Hordak had popped up and caught her. He charged up his arm canon. “Do not touch Entrapta!” he roared.   
  
Without warning, the two of them had hopped off the tank and had joined in battle with all of the Princesses! Androids shot lasers left and right! Catra and Entrapta traded blows! Hordak punched and dodged in single combat with She-Ra! She swung her sword at him, sparkling with power as he blasted away at her with his canon, narrowly missing her head!   
  
And as Scorpia’s lightning-powers crackled overhead, they knew when they were beat. Hordak’s armor sparked where parts of it were broken. Entrapta’s hair was frayed and dirty. They ran back to the tank. At that moment…   
  
She-Ra jumped up and drove her sword straight into the canon-barrel on the Trapper Tank! Power surged and the canon exploded, sending the tank flying through the air and flipping over on the ground!   
  
And there, a woozy Hordak found himself collapsed in his tank’s throne, Entrapta thrown across his lap.   
  
“That confounded muscle-bound female!” he cursed, pumping his fist in the air.   
  
Entrapta smiled at him from her position over his knees. “Looks like we’ll have to get them next week!” she said, laughing up at him.   
  
“Same day, same time,” he said, wickedly grinning, rather enjoying the mess he and Entrapta inevitably found themselves in. 


	27. I'm Only Here For the Soda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 27 - Other Series AU 
> 
> "War...War never changes." 
> 
> Welcome to Fallout: Etheria.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably one of the stranger ideas for a crossover, but here it is. Extreme liberties taken with both canons - after all, I'm fitting a Y-7-rated cartoon into a Mature-rated video game series. The title of this is drawn from a snarky bit of dialogue you can give one of the major raider-band bosses in the Nuka-World expansion in Fallout 4. 
> 
> For those who are reading this who aren't familiar with the Fallout series - why, yes, the "strange meat" is exactly what it sounds like.

**I’m Only Here For the Soda  
**  
  
 _I don’t want to set the world on fire…  
I just want to light a flame in your Heart…  
  
_  
Entrapta danced a little to her Pip-Bow radio (named for a famous creator) as she roamed the Wastes. Well, her real name wasn’t “Entrapta,” it was just the name she chose to brand herself with as a form of advertising. Anyone who had meager treasures to protect – gun parts, explosives, armors, usable farmland – knew to come hire her to create the best traps. None of those dumb grenade-bouquets for her – so easily dodged! Settlements that partook of her services could count on rigged laser-rifles, controlled-release techno-organic beasts and plasma-traps to protect their people!  
  
And robots. She definitely had a talent for hijacking and rebuilding robots.   
  
All she asked for in return was some caps to live on, maybe some purified water if she was running low, and directions to any First Ones Vaults that anyone knew of.   
  
Entrapta was roving around with her modified Mr. Gutsy unit, Emily, her most trusted companion – not that she’d really had a lot of companions, but Emily had so far avoided being shot to scrap metal by raiders – and had taken care of more than a few of them with her laser-cannon!  
  
It had been 200 some-odd years after the Heart of Etheria had been unleashed, bathing the world in a magical apocalypse. Areas of corrupted magic still made people sick and killed them. Others, universally considered the least lucky ones, became “ghouls” – people whose bodies refused to age, but deteriorated in rot, with slaking skin and noses fallen off. Unless killed by one thing or another, they eventually suffered brain-rot and the poor saps had becoming zombie-like “feral ghouls” to look forward to – at least, unless someone found a cure for their condition.   
  
Just before the war, a portion of the people of Etheria had found refuge in Vaults, home to the lost technology of those that came before, the First Ones. Entrapta was obsessed with all things technology, especially that of the First Ones and would brave any Vault, no matter how run-down and no matter what nefarious experiments had gone on in them. The Vaults, as it turned out, hadn’t been an innocent project to protect common Etherians in the event of a war. Some of them had served that -the control-group Vaults - but most ran experimentation on their residents. Some of the results of the weirder experiments still stalked the halls of any given Vault.   
  
Some rumored that Light Hope – the ultimate overseer of all of the Vaults – had orchestrated everything at the behest of a conglomerate of wealthy individuals who had designs upon preserving only themselves and their supposedly “perfect” genes – and that even the war with the Galactic Horde that had devastated the world was the AI’s doing.   
  
Entrapta was a descendant of Vault-dwellers and had such an experiment to thank for her strange, prehensile hair, at least. The world was ruined, but she had cool hair!   
  
As it was, the scavver was chasing a rumor of an amazing stash of Magi-Cola said to be ensconced in one of the settlements – an old amusement park known as the Fright Zone. It was some old place filled with monster-themed rides and it was a place that was a stronghold for an off-branch of a group called the Brotherhood of the Horde – remnants and descendants of the old Horde military, researchers into tech. Tech aside, Entrapta loved anything refreshing and fizzy – even if the beverages were over 200 years old. Those old bottles could really keep the carbonation in!   
  
And caps, of course. Every bottle had a cap! They were the currency of this brave new world.   
  
Ooh, and maybe she’d get to play with some toys along the way! The Brotherhood was said to have some of the best weapons around!   
  
She trotted right up to the city gate of the Fright Zone and was greeted by a person who looked like they’d been the result of someone being dunked into a vat of Forced-Evolution Virus along with a Magi-Radscropion.   
  
“Entrapta’s the name, building traps and repairing robots is my game!” she said, “I thought I’d take a look around… offer my robot-repair services… Oooh, does your tail secrete some kind of venom?”   
  
“Hey! Hey! You can’t just touch a woman’s tail like that!”   
  
The scorpion-woman rebuffed Entrapta’s attempts at research. Just as well. This always happened when she wanted to study someone’s interesting magical mutations.  
  
“Who’s this?” a scrappy, raider-looking person asked, wandering up to the gate. “You know our policy, Scorpia. Make sure they aren’t gonna try and kill us, and then make sure they have caps to spend or something to offer.” The woman gave Entrapta a sidelong glance. “Who is this? Long hair…hmm. Looks like some kind of scavver-princess. Where are you from, Princess?”  
  
“All over!” Entrapta answered, “Though my grandpa came out of the Dryl-Vault.”   
  
The raider’s dark hair was scruffy and she looked like she had more than a few fleas. And was that a tail? Oh, never mind! Entrapta was sure she’d have plenty of time to study both of the guards if she could only get inside their stronghold. Now, she had loads of points in Intelligence, but wasn’t so sure about her Charisma…  
  
“Robot-repair person,” Scorpia nodded. “Do you think the boss might want to talk to her? He’s been having issues with his medical-bot.”   
  
“We aren’t supposed to talk about that, remember?”  
  
“I can fix anything! And, really, I’m just here for the soda! I’ll take a case or two of that as payment for anything you need! And any tiny food.” Entrapta pented her hair as if the ponytails were hands, which sent the eyes of the scruffy woman and those of the scorpion-woman wide. “But nothing made with strange meat, okay? I had some of that once… had no idea what it was, I just ran into some guys calling what they were selling ‘strange meat pies’ and I got soooo sick!”   
  
“Why is your hair doing that?” The scorpion asked. “Catra, why is her hair doing that?”  
  
“Hell if I know! Anyway, if you’re a decent mechanic – and really only want soda – we might just have a use for you. I’ll take you to the boss.”   
  
“Vault-experiment,” Entrapta said as she followed this “Catra’ person. “My hair, I mean. Isn’t it cool?”   
  
Catra adjusted her hat. Entrapta saw a large, cat-like ear flick out from beneath it.   
  
“Ooooh! Are you an experiment, too?”   
  
“Most of us are here,” Catra answered. “The Fright Zone is for outcasts that the other settlements won’t take in. Our leader is a ghoul. He could use someone to repair his medical-bot and to fix his power armor. Old Brotherhood of the Horde guy. Pretty angry and pretty ugly, but don’t comment on his looks. He’ll have you sent to Beast Island the second you do.”   
  
Entrapta looked around and saw scraggly raider-looking people, lizard-folk and ghouls. Everything was built upon metal scaffolding and from the bodies of old hover-skiffs. She felt right at home. She assured Emily that they were going to be alright. The cat-eared woman was eying the unit nervously.   
  
They came to a man in a hulking set of power armor, sans-helmet, crouched down welding and wiring a strange structure.   
  
“Lord Hordak,” Catra said.   
  
The man rose to his feet and looked down at them both.   
  
“Mechanic wants to work for us. She’s asking for payment in soda.”   
  
Hordak was a lighter-skinned ghoul, at least in the face. It occasionally happened that the magical-radiation blanched the skin as well as rotting it. His eyes were a startling red. He had a trait unusual for a ghoul – hair. It was in a single strip along the center of his head. Entrapta could not tell if it was real or if it had been pasted on somehow. The decay of his ears left them ragged and looking pointed.   
  
Entrapta didn’t know why Catra had cautioned her not to comment on his looks and had called him ugly. She didn’t look ugly at all to her. On the contrary, he was fascinating. His eyes were particularly striking.   
  
“I grade anyone who wishes to work for me by merit,” Hordak intoned. “Do a good job and you shall earn your soda.”   
  
Entrapta darted to the apparatus he had been working on and started fiddling with it. Immediately, her tool-belt was unfurled and she had her welding-mask down and was tinkering with it.   
  
“What?” the ghoul said, tilting back in his armor, the boot of which crushed a brick.   
  
“You were using un-insulated cables,” Entrapta explained. “I know you gotta make do with what you’ve got in the wasteland. It so happens that I’ve got just what you need right with me! Oh, and can you step aside? You’re in my light.”   
  
Hordak wrinkled his nose-bridge at this strange woman’s sheer audacity.   
  
“I’ll get her out of here, Lord Hordak. We really shouldn’t have disturbed you.”   
  
Hordak turned to her. “The only one bothering me right now is you, Catra.”   
  
“Huh?”   
  
“There!” Entrapta declared. “All done! It should hold a charge now!”   
  
Half of the Fright Zone suddenly lit up. It echoed with the happy cries of surprised settlers.   
  
The old ghoul smiled. “We are keeping her.”   
  
  



	28. There's a First Time for Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month   
> Oct. 28 - First Time 
> 
> Well, it was a first for both of them, this activity.

**There’s a First Time for Everything  
**  
  
“Aren’t the hip-boots a little much?” Hordak asked. “They seem a poor fashion-choice.”   
  
“They’ll keep you from getting too wet!”   
  
Hordak waved his long pole around, unsure of himself. Is this how it was supposed to work? It worked like this on the video he saw. Entrapta was wet already. Well, this day was going splendidly…   
  
Why in the world had she insisted on fly-fishing as a fun activity of all things? Entrapta had seen footage of it and had wanted to try it. She insisted that her staff could make “sushi, an amazing tiny food!” out of any fish they’d catch. And so, Hordak was hip-deep in a river with wader-boots, trying to figure out how to dap a fly just the right way in slightly churned water.   
  
Entrapta had slipped on a rock and had gotten herself completely dunked. She’d righted herself on soggy hair and was having much more luck than he was. She’d given up on the pole and had just affixed a fly to the end of a strand of hair. With finessed controls, she was catching Snows Trout left and right and had filled up a stringer full of them.   
  
It wasn’t that Hordak didn’t enjoy the prospect of being a predator, but it didn’t quite pan out when the prey was so adept at avoiding him. It began to rain. Hordak flattened his ears back, trying to keep them beneath the shadow of the lure-bedecked stereotypical fisherman’s hat that Entrapta had insisted upon purchasing for him at the camping supply shop.   
  
Suddenly, he knew that there had been a reason why he wasn’t much for the outdoors.   
  
“Oh, you look miserable,” Entrapta said, sloshing up to him.   
  
“I am miserable. This is not a hobby of mine. This is my first time fishing and I don’t much care for it.”   
  
“It’s the first time for me, too, and I had no idea I’d be so good at it! There’s a first time for everything!”   
  
“As long as your kitchen staff can make use of your catch.”   
  
“I don’t think I’ll drag you out to do this anymore.”   
  
“Good.”   
  
“Hordak?”   
  
“Hmm?”   
  
“You wanna go home and do it?”


	29. Breaking Point

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 29 - Saving
> 
> Mermista catches Hordak without his full armor and chooses to avenge her kingdom. Entrapta comes to his rescue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A rather bloody, nasty chapter. Be warned.

  
Oct. 29 – Saving   
  
**Breaking Point  
**  
  
Mermista walked the halls of Bright Moon Palace. All of the national leaders from every kingdom, principality and territory across the planet had been called here for a summit to decide environmental protection accords and what to do about an influx of interplanetary immigration to their small world. It had been close to two years after the defeat of the Galactic Horde and she couldn’t say that she was entirely happy with the justice-decisions she was overruled on. People who’d wrecked her kingdom and had caused untold suffering to her people specifically as well as endangering the world as a whole had gotten off “free” in her view.   
  
Things had been quiet. Former enemies seemed to be genuinely making their peace. Catra was living in Bright Moon and while she spent a lot of her time doing physical repair-work, being sentenced to the custody of your lover struck Mermista as a slap on the wrist. It would be wise not to even get her started on Hordak’s house-arrest in Dryl with Geek Princess. They were probably just biding their time, waiting to start another conquest – for themselves rather than any extra-planetary force. She sort of got along with Geek Princess now – she’d done too much good for everyone – including, notably, getting her un-chipped and saving her from a permanent brainwashing – but she wasn’t so sure that her tall dark and gruesome boyfriend ought to be let anywhere near her tech. Entrapta didn’t build weapons anymore – or so that was a part of Dryl’s side of the treaty, but everyone knew that Entrapta wasn’t big on following rules. 

The Princess of Salineas walked past an cracked-open door. It was clear that someone had shut it hastily and hadn’t gotten it sealed all of the way. She caught a glimpse of something – or rather someone, through the crack. Great, the person she least wanted to see. There was Hordak, standing before a vanity-mirror applying his eye-makeup. He was half-dressed – had his boots and his black dress on, as well as part of his armor – the weird tubes that affixed to points in the spaces between his ribs.   
  
Mermista couldn’t help but stare. She’d heard murmurs of the man having health-problems… something about his armor being a life-support system that he needed to wear at least parts of to act as medical-braces. She had never before seen his shoulders, his back or his arms. He was bony and covered in strange scars. His arms were especially bad – just like nothing she’d ever seen before – gaps where muscles should be, grown over with skin. It was a completely alien configuration.   
  
She knew the other clones weren’t like this. She’d seen the one everyone called “Kadroh” take off his shirt once. She didn’t like to think about it. Celebration of the Fall of Prime… clones and margaritas mixing about as well as Sea Hawk and margaritas. Aside from those weird metal ports in him and the gray-blue skin, he’d looked like a well-muscled young man.   
  
Hordak was quite the opposite.   
  
Mermista was overtaken with a wicked idea. He was weak right now, wasn’t he? He wasn’t dressed in his full armor. She could see him shaking a little at the vanity-table. He had no idea she was there. She was carrying her trident. If need be, she had all of the water within Bright Moon’s plumbing-pipes to work with.   
  
She shook her head. It didn’t seem right, attacking someone unarmed, unaware. Then again, Hordak and Catra had taken her kingdom and the Sea Elf village by surprise. How many people had lost their homes suddenly? How many had been dead before they’d hit the ground? Okay, okay, so the casualties had been minimal – property and structural damage as her people had fled as soon as the first lasers were fired and the Rebellion had mounted a brilliant evacuation-mission, but it wasn’t for the pointy-eared asshole’s lack of trying. He had just been slathering for some orphaned sea-elf kids to raise as Horde-soldiers, wasn’t he?   
  
Reformed, reformed…yeah, she knew. He was supposed to be reformed now. He had been a brainwashed cult-soldier who had some seriously skewed views on morality and was learning better, but that didn’t fix the past, did it?   
  
It didn’t quell her gnawing suspicion of him, either. She decided to do the world a favor.   
  
“For Salineas!” she shouted as she leapt into the room, trident high above her head.   
  
Hordak turned around with a surprised grunt. He dodged a stab to the back. Mermista swiped for his neck-port. If she could get to that, she could get him down. Oh, she didn’t care if she’d lose rulership of her kingdom for this or even if she spent the rest of her life imprisoned in Bright Moon’s spare room, Hordak was going to pay!   
  
“What is the meaning of this?” Hordak roared. “Get! Out!”   
  
“Not until I avenge my people!” Mermista cried. She swiped for him again, narrowly missing. He snarled and gave her a rake of his claws across her side. She clutched her wound and glared at him, keeping her grip on her weapon.   
  
“Get out!”   
  
Hordak was trembling and seemed to be having trouble keeping steady on his feet after the sudden burst of exertion. Mermista saw an opening. She thrust her trident toward him and caught it right in the gap in his left arm. She grinned maliciously as she gave the fishing-spear a sharp twist.   
  
A sickening crack ensued, followed by torn skin and the spark of damaged internal cybernetics. Hordak fell flat to the floor and crawled in his own spilling blood, clenching his teeth and hissing. His left arm was mangled. He’d nearly passed out from the pain. It was a good thing that he stayed awake. He held up his right arm to defend himself against getting stabbed through the hearts.   
  
As he lifted his head, he saw before him a curtain of purple. A moment later, he felt a tendril of soft hair loop around the back of his neck and shoulder, as if trying to give him a reassuring hug.   
  
Entrapta was perched on her hair before him, having jumped down from a ceiling-vent. Her coils were out like the tentacles of a giant octopus.   
  
“YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE!” she roared with all of the breath in her lungs. Hordak watched in awe as Entrapta’s hair whipped around Mermista, clutching her by the middle (the lovely locks getting stained by the claw-wound) and by the throat.   
  
Mermista dropped her trident. She feebly clawed at the deadly tendril that was constricting her throat like a hungry snake preparing its prey for consumption.   
  
Through his haze of pain, Hordak could scarcely believe what he was seeing. Entrapta had her mask titled up. When he caught a glimpse of her face, she saw it in a grimace fit to terrify a demon. Mermista’s lips were beginning to turn blue and her eyes were rolling back.   
  
“ENTRAPTA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DROP HER! DROP HER!”   
  
Adora burst into the room, followed by Bow, Glimmer, Perfuma and Scorpia. Adora quickly transformed into She-Ra, her sword out.   
  
“Entrapta, I’ll cut your hair right off if you don’t drop Mermista right this instant!” she demanded.   
  
“Boss?” Scorpia asked, seeing Hordak in his sorry state on the floor. She then addressed Entrapta. “Please, Entrapta, this isn’t you. Don’t do this!”   
  
Entrapta dropped Mermista like a sack of potatoes and knelt protectively beside Hordak. Glimmer teleported to Mermista and teleported her out of Entrapta’s perceived hair-range. Mermista gasped. Perfuma stroked her forehead and held her up on a bed of vines. “You’ll be okay,” she assured. “You’ll be okay.”   
  
Scorpia ran to Hordak and knelt down beside him. She braced a claw behind his back to help him sit up. “You’re gonna be okay, sir, we can fix this… I think. I’ve cracked my exoskeleton a few times back in the Fright Zone. Do we have any duct tape?”   
  
Hordak glared daggers at her. “It is only pain,” he grunted. “I can handle it.”   
  
Catra ran in, late to the party. “I heard shouting what’s going… on?”   
  
She wrinkled her nose at the strong smell of blood.   
  
Entrapta was perched over Hordak. She put her mask firmly down and the eyes were glowing, as if warning any Princess save for Scorpia not to come near.   
  
“Mermista attacked him,” she said. “He didn’t do anything.”   
  
“Then what is this claw-mark?” Perfuma whined.   
  
Mermista held up a hand as she caught her breath. “It’s true,” she said. “None of you had the grit to execute the bastard for his war-crimes, so I decided that I had to step up.”   
  
“Mermista!” Bow gasped. He was glad that Sea Hawk was off on an adventure and didn’t have to hear his Princess of the Sea say such things.   
  
Glimmer crossed her arms. “You would attempt to overstep MY authority and assault a guest of my court!”   
  
“Guest,” Mermista coughed.   
  
Entrapta held a pad. “I got it all on video, see!” She projected a holographic recording taken from a view of the ceiling. Even with vent-grates in the way, it showed Hordak innocently applying his eyeliner only to turn around to a rampaging Mermista.   
  
Hordak was trying to pick himself up, only to be held down gently at the

shoulder by Scorpia and to be bid to keep sitting by Entrapta, even as she’d turned a portion of her hair into a tourniquet at the crux of his arm to try to stem the bleeding.   
  
After healing Mermista, She-Ra stepped over to him and knelt beside him. Hordak flinched away from her on reflex. “Easy, okay?” she said. “I want to help.”   
  
He winced as Entrapta gently pulled his arm up. She-Ra took the mangled limb by the elbow and the hand tenderly. Hordak hissed. She-Ra concentrated and a golden glow covered the arm. The cybernetics snapped back into place, as did the bone. The skin re-grew.   
  
Hordak relaxed, supported by Entrapta’s blood-flecked hair.   
  
“He...he should still lie down… in a bed,” Adora said hesitantly as she released her power to become herself again.   
  
Thankfully, they were already in Entrapta and Hordak’s guest-chambers. Entrapta helped him to the bed, leaving the Princesses to deal with their own.   
  
She shot a glare at Mermista who flanked by the others. “Get out!” she said. 


	30. Beautiful Bodies and Beautiful Minds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 30 - Imperfection 
> 
> Pains in a clone-soldier’s body start leading to independent thought. 
> 
> Entrapta had a reason why she never dressed up for Princess Prom.

**Beautiful Bodies and Beautiful Minds  
**  
  
He couldn’t remember when he’d first registered twinges of pain. Perhaps Horde Prime could have designed all of them without the ability to feel pain, but that would run counter to his perfect plans. The Exalted Brothers needed pain in order to react appropriately in combat. They needed pain in order to be properly disciplined. They needed to suffer to know when they had failed.   
  
This pain, however, wasn’t gained from work on the battlefield. The clone could not figure out its source. It would come up in his “general’s duties,” when he did them, and his regular ship-patrol duties, in galley-work, in the service of royalty and dignitaries that were staying as guests of Prime in the well-appointed prison-rooms while terms of their surrender were discussed. 

He submitted himself to medical reconditioning many times. He would feel better for a while, but the pain would return in the course of a cycle. It was in his arms and shoulders mostly, but unpredictably, it would lance up his spine. On occasion, he’d become winded and feel his hearts beat erratically. When the reconditions failed to keep him functioning optimally for long, he attempted to compensate. It had started in such small ways – small deviations - a hitch in his step, a slower gait, allowing a brother to help him regain his feet when he staggered. This happened quite a lot among them, although Prime despised even the appearance of weakness. Prime saw all and knew all, so, surely, he saw when a brother offered a shoulder to lean on to another or shared some of their ration of amniotic fluid when one had lost theirs on the field or had failed to be in their pod precisely at feeding-time? He must have known and approved…?   
  
The doubts began creeping into the soldier’s mind in stronger force when he started going to the robot-bay unscheduled to tune up his own cybernetics. He used tools that fit inside his ports or otherwise would injure himself in minor, discreet ways to get at the work that needed to be done. He needed to keep himself functioning in order to keep himself useful – which would keep him from being recycled or cast away. Surely, Prime approved of him doing what was necessary to keep his body working?   
  
Or maybe not. Such blasphemous thoughts he was having! To think for one second that he entertained the very idea that maybe Prime did not see what he was doing and did not know! So… why did he sneak and skulk about? Why did he wish to make sure he was out of sight of his brothers when he went to the bay?   
  
Why did he know about that mildly nearsighted clone that the medical crew did not report and failed to report him, as well? Why did he not report the one who had come back from Necron with a slight limp in his right leg? Why had he and multiple brothers sheltered that one in the lower decks while the leg healed rather than report him for judgment by Prime for his clumsiness?   
  
Such were the origins of independent thoughts, and these had sealed his doom. When Horde Prime found his defect, he was sent to the front lines, ill-equipped, for a final glory and ended up being sucked into another dimension. His thoughts had been muddled after the crash and the severing from the Hive, in addition to the background of pain that his defective body experienced, which only worsened over time. His thoughts were shaped by the landscape – royalty and the concept of names, locals who agreed to follow someone if promised new technology and new ways of living…   
  
And this was the way culled livestock built an imperfect imitation of an empire.   
  
It was much later when Hordak realized that he’d been mere livestock, and it was only when someone else with a body and mind that Horde Prime would have considered imperfect was looping her arms around his neck and leaning into him that he felt at home.   
  
Entrapta complained every once in a while about her looks. She was “short” she said, “and pudgy.” When her hands were freed from their gloves, they and her arms were laced up and down with pale scars, all earned from accidents both large and small in her work.   
  
She didn’t bother with wearing makeup – and she told him that this was because she’d learned early on that it didn’t help her fit in any better with others and she didn’t like the feel of it on her face. She thought his black eyeliner looked beautiful on him, though. She’d just never found anything that beautified her enough in the eyes of fellow Etherians to fit in with the crowd. It was also the reason why she didn’t bother wearing anything but her usual, comfortable clothes when she’d engaged in the “social experiment” of the All-Princess Ball some time ago.   
  
Her mind was imperfect, she’d said – not a brain that was good with people. She tried to make herself useful, but didn’t care to cater her looks to impress them.   
  
Hordak, for his part, was more than impressed by her – her lack of fear, her complete and open honesty and the way that her wonderful mind had little compatibility with petty social games. She was herself around him, through and through.   
  
And, in turn, he could be himself around her, through and through.   
  
Neither of them had to try to meet anyone else’s expectations anymore.   
  
Livestock, Soldier, Geek, Weirdo…   
  
Person, Freed-man, Brilliant, Lover…   
  
The two had found a home within each other, beautifully imperfect together. 


	31. Rest and Relaxation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapdak Positivity Month  
> Oct. 31 - Vacation 
> 
> Entrapta and Hordak vacation at Mystacore and hit up the hot springs.

**Rest and Relaxation**   
  
  
Hordak was surprised when he was allowed to set foot on Mystacore. As he disembarked the transport, he looked around for guards that might arrest them. None appeared. Apparently, Entrapta _had_ arranged this ahead of time and this wasn’t simply a whim.   
  
“Oh, don’t be so stiff!” Entrapta scolded. “This is a vacation! No need to be all serious!”   
  
“This is vacation from what, exactly?” Hordak asked. To tell the truth, he would have preferred to stay in Dryl, working on robot prototypes and artificial limbs in the laboratory, the “second Sanctum,” that they shared together. As it was, he didn’t want to face the eyes upon them from suspicious Etherians who held a rightful grudge.   
  
“Well, Beast Island is a done deal and the terms of your house-arrest in Dryl are up! Sometimes even I like to get out of the castle! We’re booked for the weekend and there are soooo many things to do here! We can hang out on the cloud beach! Ooh! Maybe the boilers are acting up again and we can fix ‘em! We can see the historical attractions… Oh, the hot springs! Let’s do that first!”   
  
“Welcome to Mystacore!” two attendants greeted, bowing. Hordak squinted. Were those… a few of his many brothers milling about in the distance among the abundance of other vacationers and wizards?   
  
“Hot springs, please!” Entrapta said, bouncing excitedly on the ends of her hair.   
  
“Right this way!” the attendants said, directing the pair.   
  
“Do they even realize who I am?” Hordak grumbled.   
  
“Of course, Hordak,” one of them said with all of the cheerfulness of a practiced service-industry drone, not bothering with any formal address. “We trust you will comply with the conditions of your treaty. At the same time, we will be monitoring your visit here closely. You well know of the powerful magics here. It would be unwise to do anything untoward.” 

  
The other one opened a doorway.   
  


“Here they are! Our springs!”   
  
As soon as Hordak saw the pools of water through the steam, he stepped backwards. “Entrapta,” he confessed… “I am…I am unsure if this is fitting for me.”   
  
The waters were clear, but his mind kept reaching back to images of glowing green. Mere steam rose from the pools, not electric arcs. He shook his head, reminding himself of this. This place was safe…this place was safe…   
  
“We actually have a mineral-treatment for the baths that are very good for spacebats!” One of the attendants happily informed. “With the help of some of your fellows, we discovered elements that are good for your skin as well as oils with soothing scents.”   
  
Unbidden, one of the Mystacore-natives opened a vial of lavender-oil. Hordak’s ears perked up.   
  
“Oh, yes!” Entrapta said, “I like that! And he seems to like it, too!”   
  
Hordak looked skeptically at the spa-clothing offered. “Get changed!” the attendants said. “The changing rooms are to your right!”   
  
“Why must I don clothing to take a bath?” Hordak asked, holding up the thin chest-piece. He supposed that it was designed to go over nipples, of which he had none. He wondered if it would fit over his chest-ports, not that such a thing was needed as they were sealed when he didn’t have them hooked up to aspects of his armor or to fluid-exchange tubes.   
  
“Wouldn’t want anyone walking in on you otherwise,” one of their hosts answered. “These are public springs.”   
  
Entrapta followed Hordak into a changing room to get him safely out of his armor. When they were ready, she coaxed him into the water of a pool. When the water hit his bare feet, his inner alarm was quelled. This was nothing like the purification pool on the Velvet Glove – which was cold and slimy and reeked of copper. No, this was pleasantly warm, bordering on hot. As he stepped further in and sat down, the warmth enveloped his skin and the buoyancy eased his muscles. The water smelled pleasant. Entrapta’s loosened hair floated like silk all around him. She nestled herself in the crook of his arm as they leaned together against the rim of the pool.   
  
“See why I wanted to bring you here?” she mumbled.   
  
“Zzzz…”   
  
Hordak’s head was dipped forward.   
  
“Hey, did you fall asleep?”   
  
She was answered with a soft, contented bat-like chirp.   
  
“Oh, well,” she said as she nestled closer, ear and hair against his chest.   
  
  



End file.
